A River Runs Through
by Lore55
Summary: After earning a favor from a dying woman, River Quinton is given a second shot at life and a chance at redemption in a world she's only read about. Unfortunately, nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Grey!OC, OC/Multi, past/present tense, oc is op af
1. Born of Fire

**This is my first BNHA story, so please be kind! Also, please note that this is gonna be confusing as hell for uh. A long time. It's got some mystery and urban fantasy thrown in, and River is actually from an original work that I'm working on, I'm mostly doing this as a sort of character study for her. It's extremely OC centric.**

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It is known by many that rivers are a contradiction within themselves.

Water that flowed, clean and fast and fresh, provided sustenance for those that gathered on their banks. Fish swam, flashing their silver scales through the light that filtered in. Deer and rabbits and panthers gathered and took the water into themselves. Bears hunted and trees grew tall and strong, nurtured by them.

The duality of rivers came with the rain.

When water cut too deep, when currents ran too fast and caught the unaware to drown them it was a tragic, necessary risk to take for the water. When the sky opened with its sorrow and wept down upon the land the rivers swelled with tears and rage that tore through the land and ripped asunder those not weary enough to flee and those two stuck in their ancient ways to think to leave.

River were life, and given the chance they were death.

River Kelly, River Quinton, these days, was not _quite_ like those rivers. Mostly she gave out grades, not stabbings. Sometimes she passed a snickers out with them, when her students look a little too tired and a little too stressed.

She wasn't even that big on rivers themselves. Despite her name sake River was and always had been a city girl at heart. Ever since she left small town Oklahoma she had been in city after city. LA, NYC, London, Tokyo, Lagos, she had been everywhere in the world.

That was when she was younger, though.

Things had changed and now she was a professor of philosophy at Columbia. She was even coming up on her tenure, that night in April when the sun sunk low and red on the horizon and the shadows reached for her throat. The sky puffed out small clouds so slim they looked more like smoke than condensation, making hazy shapes for her on her walk home from the subway.

It was quiet, this close to her house. Weirdly quiet.

It was the type of quiet that came on play grounds after dark and long stretches of highway. A quiet that was not meant to exist in a city the size of hers. The hair on the back of her arms started standing on end and River began to walk faster.

Her hand dipped into her purse, wrapping around the hilt of a small knife she kept there. Her fingers brush against her dead phone as well. Dread twists inside of her. The Morrison's dog doesn't bark when she walks past, the light that always flickers when she walks beneath it stays on, glowing gold. A single point of light she stops just shy of.

Her eyes sweep across the street, over cars and cracked cement. Into the alleyways and past garbage cans. The shadows don't move.

She relaxes, slowly, willing her shoulders to stop being so tight. The toes of her shoes barely touch the single circle of light when the air around her moves, wind blowing her short hair. Red bangs flutter in front of her face and for an instant she sees only that.

A gunshot rings out.

River runs. Her heart beats in her ears and she tears down the street, under light and back into darkness. The air tastes cold and she smells the copper before she skids around the corner, so low to the ground her finger tips touch street to steady herself. The sight she somes across makes her stomach turn and her pulse beat hotter.

Three men and one women. Two of the men have one arm each and the third is covering the struggling woman's mouth. A gun smokes in his other hand. The woman isn't going down quietly, she thrashes hard, throwing her self between one man and the other and for a second River thinks she might break free.

Then, the third man drove his fist into the womans stomach and she stopped struggling. Over the mans shoulder the woman made eye contact with River and she was struck still for an instant.

Red eyes. Red, red, flashing in the dark.

She knew she should run. She knew she should call the cops, that anyone else would have done that. Something told her that if she left right then, it would be the strange woman's last night. One of the men caught sight of her and his own eyes, red, red the same color as the sunset, the same color as blood, bored into hers.

River pulls out her knife, holding it tight and narrowing her eyes at the scene before her.

"Hey!" she shouts, loud as she can. Maybe someone else will hear and call the cops. Maybe she can buy time and the woman will escape. Maybe she'll close the distance between them and stab the men.

She's contemplating the last one heavily when the third man turns to look at her. She throws the knife, fast and hard, sinking it into his skull. He should go down. He doesn't.

Her heart beats.

The woman bites him, hard. Skin breaks and he shouts, swinging with the gun. The woman ducks and it hits one of the men holding his arms and after that its over. River is stilled in her awe as the woman before her moves fast, faster than her eyes can follow. A mans head goes flying and the other two and thrown away violently in pieces. None of them rise again. One of the heads rolls to a stop before River's feet, red eyes staring up at her. Dull, lifeless.

Her heart beats again.

Heat coils tight in her guts. She's never- _never_ seen anyone who moves that fast. Who's that strong.

She looks up, expecting the woman to be on her feet in victory or ready take down River next.

She isn't. She's on the ground, in a pool of blood that's coming mostly from her stomach. River runs to her side, falling to her knees and tearing the cloth of her jeans to soak them in the blood on the ground. There's so much of it.

She can't call an ambulance. Even if she could, it wouldn't do much good.

"Hey," she says again, quieter now, "Hey, it's gonna be okay now." She dares touch the woman's' shoulder. She's cold. Colder than ice and its burns.

River gather her in her arms.

"No," the womans voice is low and soft, the whisper of waves on a beach. It crashes into River, digs deep into her ribs. "No, it's not, but that was a good thing you did River girl," she smiles up at her. "A real brave thing."

"It didn't- I didn't even help that much," River objects. She'd stabbed a man in the head and he hadn't dropped like he should have. She'd tried to save this woman but she couldn't. She'd been too late and she'd made so many stupid mistakes. She should have gone in swinging, not drawn their attention. She should have protected-

"You're a good person, River Kelly. You got a kind heart. Remember that, would you?"

River frowns down at her. She's wrong, she's all wrong and, River never told her her name. She doesn't know what's going on.

"I owe you a favor," the woman continues.

"You don't owe me anything," River argues. The woman shakes her head. Her eyes are glassy and the sunset is fading from them. Shadows stretch across the two women.

"Then I'll give you a favor. Take it," the woman pushes her hand between River's breasts and a hot cinder wedges itself into her sternum, catching her off guard. She sucks in a sharp breath. "Tell Michael I said hello."

She lets out a breath and goes limp in Rivers arms.

River cradles her for a long few minutes, blood seeping into her clothes and growing cold. At last she kisses the strange woman on the forehead and rises, leaving the cold body to lay on the ground. It felt wrong, like she should have done something else. Something more. The whole situation feels wrong.

She stares down at the dead woman a few moments longer. The world comes back. There's noise again. The dog starts barking, a car flies past before hitting traffic that hadn't been there before, someone screams and River disappears into the night, leaving a dead woman in the cross roads.

Death has not stuck to River for a long, long time.

Not since she was seventeen, and she clung to Taro with his blood in his head and a bullet between his ribs. Not since an explosion brought down towers of iron and stone and she stood alone in the rubble, Farah's body at her feet.

She doesn't even know the woman who died.

It shouldn't hold onto her for so many days later but as she sits in the kitchen in her little house, eating dinner with Carter while Tarmac lays at her feet, chewing at a chunk of boiled chicken.

She likes her house. Normally, she feels totally at ease. There isn't anyone left in the world who could kill her, besides the person sitting across from her with his face stuffed with half of a chicken and three full potatoes.

She feels secure, surrounded by the pine cone patterned wall paper and the worn out tile. The sofa is old and lumpy and has a stain that never quite dried but she had wrestled it through the door with Carter the first day they moved in together, broken the leg and fallen on the floor in front of it laughing. The TV is new, shiny and HD and hooked up to as many game consoles and she could manage without shorting anything out.

She loves her house. She loves her fiancé. She loves her spoiled as fuck cat.

But she can't focus on it.

She can't focus on the rosemary in the chicken or the smell of the caramel candle sitting on the counter. All she can think of is sunset eyes that dimmed when the light fell.

 _You have a kind heart_.

Her sternum throbs with the cinder sitting under the bone.

"…think? 'Vera? 'Vera!"

Her head jerked up, towards Carter. "Sorry, what?"

How long has it been since she'd been so distracted by anything she missed what other people were saying? She's getting sloppy. Complacent. Not that it really matters. No one can kill her.

Carter frowns at her, his dark eyes hard and irritated. He was always so pretty, but the scowl makes him ugly.

"I said, 'tonight the night to try those ropes, don't you think?' You haven't been listening to me all night. What's wrong with you?"

River scratches her neck, managing to look sheepish. "Sorry, I was just distracted. I'm tired-"

"Oh no!" Carter's frown turns into a scowl and he sits straight up. "You've been using this same excuse for three days, I'm tired of it. You're my fiancé, but you're not acting like one. I've been patient with your tired crap, it's been like a week River!"

River cringes. "I'm sorry! Okay? I just don't have the energy right now."

"Then just lay there and let me do my thing!"

"Carter, no," she says more firmly, frowning at him. "You're acting like a jerk."

"And you're acting like a cold bitch. I spent all day waiting for you, I even made you dinner and this is the thanks I get?!" Carter stands up so fast his chair screeches on the tiles. Tarmac yowls and runs out from under her feet, bolting to the wall and running right into it. "And your cat!" he goes on. "He's been driving me up the wall, damn it River!"

River presses her lips into a thin line and looks up at him, her eyes hardening.

"I think that's enough. I'm not dealing with this, Carter. I'm not."

Carter slams his hands on the table, sending his plate clattering to the ground and crashing to the floor. It isn't fine enough to break on impact but it got his point across.

River's heart picks up. Her ribs tighten and the cinder burns hotter.

She stares right at him.

Doesn't move. Doesn't run. Or speak. Just stares at the red creeping up his neck and the way his hands are shaking on the table. Tarmac hisses at him, fur standing on end.

The love that had filled the house with such warmth simmers off and the warmth coiled into a horrible chill that echoes in her bones. She feels sick, like throwing up, and the betrayal stings like a slap in the face.

Carter broke eye contact first. He rips his hand through his hair and glares down at her.

"I'm out of here," is all he said before he stormed away. Out of the kitchen, out of the house. The door slams behind him and River slowly tries to breath again. She blinks rapidly, tears from her eyes and finishes eating quietly before she cleans up after herself. She leaves Carter's mess on the floor and picks up Tarmac so he won't eat what Carter left behind.

She walks past their picture lined hallways, ignoring the smiling couple in front of a lake, the stack of two people on the front lawn of his mothers house. She doesn't look at the big photo snapped of him down on one knee and her hand over her mouth.

She passes all of this by and goes to lay down in her room, shutting the door firmly behind her and curling up with Tarmac stuck under one arm. Much to his chagrin.

Her cheeks are still wet when she finally fall into sleep.

She isn't sure if she actually wakes up, but she becomes away of the cinder burning in her chest and the wetness on her cheeks and the fact that she is no long asleep and no long breathing.

She tries to breath, but it doesn't really work.

It isn't dark, like she feels it should be. It's bright. Bright, orange, yellow. Tarmac curls around her shoulders, his small paws kneading into her shirt.

"Haaa, so you're the one."

Her head snapped to the side, catching onto someone standing in the corner. He's tall, dark, wreathed in shadows.

"Yep. I'm the one," she's not sure what she's the one of, but if he's here for her it's probably for a reason. She shifted on the bed, getting her knees under her and gets ready to cut him.

"So she explained to you about the favor?" the man asks. He steps into the light and she falters. His hair is made of fire. She takes a breath and settles back down, gently lifting Tarmac off of her shoulders to put him to the side. There's something wrong but she can't place it. She can only focus on the person standing in front of her. The man with fire for his hair.

"Uh. No. Do you mean…" she trails off, touching her chest where the woman had pushed the hot coal under her skin.

"Her favor, yeah," he confirms. "I'm Michael."

"Michael. Okay," she says slowly. She grips under her jaw, digging her nails in and trying to think.

"I don't think she thought you would die this soon," Michael adds.

She stiffens. "Wait, what?" her nails bite hard into her skin, pain brings out some of the clouds in her head.

"You're dead," he says, slowly. Points to her.

She looks down and sucks in a hard breath she's not sure she actually feels. Fire. Fire, orange and yellow and red cloaks her body. Underneath it everything is black. Everything. There's a pile of ash on the floor.

Her hand was covered in black lace already, but now the rest of her body is blackening to. Charring and peeling. The soot on her side is Tarmac, she realizes. She's held him to her. He hadn't been able to escape.

Tears gather in her eyes and guilt churns in her stomach.

"I don't… understand," she says, because she doesn't. There's no one who can-

"Carter," she says, just as soon as the thought crosses her mind. She closes her eyes. Rage churns her stomach. "Carter."

"He lit the house on fire," Michael confirms. She stares at the table side, watches the cover of her manga smolders. Overhaul and Izuku turn black and burn into ash in front of her very eyes. She should be in tremendous pain.

"So I died. And you're Michael. The Michael? Angel of death?" her mind flies back to the woman in the crossroads. Her red eyes. The man who didn't go down when she buried a knife in his head. She'd never failed to kill someone before.

She was, after all, the Red River.

"You got my number. You're… not a very good person," he says, and she has to agree. She's not. She doesn't think she ever has been.

"So. Hell?" she guesses. She holds Tarmac again to her chest, feeling only worse when his rough tongue touched her cheek. She had held him down while he burned to death.

"Normally, yes," Michael steps closer to her. The fire in his hair reaches out and consumes part of his face. When the shadows twist she realizes she can see wings too. Six of them, spread behind him in a phantom stretch. "But, you're owed a favor."

"I don't know what that favor is supposed to be," she admits. She's not sure why she got the favor in the first place. She was no use, in the end.

"You didn't let her die alone," Michael says after a minute. "You didn't have to. You even tried to save her. Just because you didn't succeed doesn't mean it wasn't worth anything. To her, it was worth a favor. One of seven."

"Who was she?" River has to ask. She wants to know. She had to know about the woman with the burning eyes who died in the arms of a stranger. The woman she let die in the crossroads.

Michael just looks at her. "Your favor. I can't let you stay on this mortal plane, you're too much trouble."

River closes her eyes and tries to think. To understand everything that's going on. It's hard. She doesn't have enough information, she doesn't know-

She hasn't been this helpless in so many years and it makes her hands shake.

"That's fine. These past few years… all I've been doing is trying to escape, anyhow," she admits. The walls are burning but they've covered in books. Tamora Pierce, K.M. Shae, P.C. Cast, Christine Warren and manga. So much manga. Sometimes it felt like she was trying to make up for the teenage years she was never really allowed to have. She was stuck as 17, but she never really had been.

"Huh. I can work with that," Michael announced, standing straighter. "Actually, that's easy. We can even twist this into a life lesson on repentance."

"… okay now you've lost me," River admits. Tarmac seems to know what's going on, because he starts purring his fuzzy butt off.

Michael reaches for her night stand and picks up the ashes of her My Hero Academia volume 14. It was ashes, but in his hands it becomes a novel once more.

"You'll enroll in a hero course and spend your life working to better humanity. A shot at redemption bought by an act of kindness towards a stranger. Perfect. Heck, I'm good!"

Michael grins at her and she's too caught off guard to say anything to that when his smile warms her from the inside out and fills her with a hope that nearly breaks her heart. Under her ribs the Favor simmers, beating a fire that rivals the flames that consume the world around her.

"What about Tarmac?" she asks swiftly, holding her precious cat to her chest.

Michael makes eye contact with the feline for a moment before he nods decisively. "He'll stay with you, and keep and eye on you for me."

The fire inside and the fire outside get bigger and bigger until she can't take it anymore and she has to close her eyes and look away from Michael, who's human visage had been melting. More eyes flashing into existence, a head hovering over his shoulder where it hadn't been before. The heat beats into her like drums, hotter, hotter, hope rages within her bones.

It vanishes.

She opens her eyes and she's sitting in a bedroom that doesn't belong to her.

Michael is gone, the fire is gone, Carter is long gone. The room is empty and beige, devoid of anything save the bed and a closet. And a small black cat sitting at the foot of her bed, looking utterly smug.


	2. First Test

The apartment, River finds, is exactly how she remembers Tokyo apartments being. It's tiny, not even half the size of the house she's left behind to burn in Brooklyn. The thing that keeps it from being a studio is a sliding wall that separates her bedroom and closet from a kitchenette and a couch.

She should thank Michael, she knows, for setting all of this up. She should thank him for letting her keep her blood. She can feel it inside of her, can feel the heat on her head that pulses with her heart.

She has a lot going for her, this time around.

The last time she'd been in Japan the only reason she got a place to stay at all was that Gen had been her guarantor, vouching for her character as a foreign person and putting his own money on the line if she turned out to be a flight risk and didn't pay her rent. As it was, she didn't think she knew anyone here who would be willing to do that for her. She didn't know how much money she had, or what she was meant to do for income, besides what she had done before and she had a feeling an angel, even and angel of death, would not support that. There was no way she could have gotten an apartment.

On the couch there lay a small envelope, and inside she found her ID's. Student Visa, Social security card, bank statements and passport. Other school IDs are in there too, for six schools in Oklahoma that she never attended and one in LA that she was in for three months before she got into a fist fight and was kicked out. Along with them is a letter from UA and an ID pass to take her test with. Her test that is in an hour. So, Micheal hadn't done everything for her.

Besides already being enrolled she has everything she would need. It was all there. Numbers were the same and River hunts until she finds a phone plugged into the wall so she can do a brief internet search on herself.

It's pretty short.

There's not Facebook or Pinterest but an old school report she vaguely remembers doing pops up and her father's obituary mentions her name and her mothers.

River wonders who she has to bribe to get her name stricken from it.

A look around and she finds there no food, but there is a single credit card sitting in the refrigerator. Angel had some sense of humor, she guesses. She uses her phone to check the bank account and finds, to her dismay, that it had enough to get her through the month but no further.

Her shoes sit by the door and with another look around she makes a mental list and leaves the house and Tarmac inside. He would be fine until she got back with everything she needed them to have and finished her test.

She get's halfway down the hall off the apartment building before a door on the right opened and out walked a man in a nice blue shirt. His hair was dusty and blond, and the only distinguishing feature to him was a scar that split right up his forehead, perfectly in half.

Oh.

"Hello," she smiled at him halfheartedly before she tucked her hands into her jean pockets and went on her way, leaving her neighbor to his own devices. Their? Twice, she wasn't sure what to call them. She was pretty sure she heard them mutter something at her back, but she wasn't paying that much attention.

She jogs outside the apartment building and down the street, taking the sights in with ease. All cities were about the same, overcrowded and packed to the brim, filled with lurking dangers and potential kindnesses.

She's on a train before she realizes something very, very important.

She's still in her pajamas.

She has nothing on her but her testing ID and a credit card.

River stares at her reflection in the window of the train. Her face is round and young, a teenager. Her eyes are gold, her pale hair is contrasted sharply by red on her crown and temples and it falls around her chin in rings.

It's not normal. She's dismissed for years as dying her hair and 'the lighting', but even the lightest brown eyes don't look like hers. Like the eyes of a coyote.

A trickster, a scavenger, a lone creature in the city willing to scrape by any means necessary.

They are not the gold eyes of a hawk, like Taro's were.

Taro, who, when she really was seventeen died. His death triggered her future. When the light left his gold eyes her own, once brown, had changed. With her failure to protect the person she loved most in life she gained something. In the world she now stand in, it would be called a quirk. In the world she came from, it was an impossibility that she hid from all but her most trusted. Even Carter hadn't known about her abnormality. Her freakishness.

It's only now, after the woman with sunset eyes and Michael and the rest of the dead eyed men are long behind her that she wonders who else in her world had had something like her. Who else had eyes that were a bit too peculiar to be normal? Were there people out there with more strength that the sunset woman? Others who could take a knife to the head and not even blink? What else had existed that she had never even looked for?

She thinks of Gen and his green tattoo, the one that seemed like it was never in the same place as the last time she saw it. Had it actually moved, and not been a figment of her imagination?

She thinks of Jazz and how fast the people around him calmed and gave in when he started talking. She thinks of Anne and her tendency to let go of things she was holding, even when there was nothing to hold it up. She thinks of her student, Mara, and the small pieces of bone that she kept in her afro that looked a little like horns. Were they decoration? Or real?

Had the little things she'd dismissed about so many people in her life been indicators of something else? Things that weren't so bland as she let herself believe. Had she been deluding herself for her entire life, when the truth hadn't been smashed into her face the way Taro's had? They way hers had?

She turns her face away from the window so she doesn't have to remember that she's still wearing a too-big t-shirt with a gingerbread man spread across her stomach. Her sleeping pants are at least black, and tennis shoes shouldn't hold her back from running.

She's never been to UA before, but it's not hard to navigate the city. She just has to check her phone now and again to make sure she knows where she is before she gets off the packed train and steps into the city. She's not the only teenager going the same way, so she just follows the crowd of kids in school uniforms. It doesn't actually matter what she's wearing, she relizes. She'll be the only one without a school uniform anyhow. A foreigner.

She can't stick out more if she tries.

That, at least, is something she's used to. A smile flashes across her face. Her heart starts to pick up.

She can dwell on the past later. She can think about Taro and Jazz and even Carter and the pain she knows will be in her heart as soon as she opens the box she's shoving all of these feeling into. Later.

Right now, she is going to enter hero school. She's going to have her first even high school entrance test.

Her feet pick up, bright red sneakers glaring and obnoxious. The gates loom in front of her and her heart starts to swell again. Excitement grows and so does the smile on her face.

She checks in briefly and goes into the big examination room, dropping into the seat assigned to her on her pass. If her leg is bouncing nervously, who can blame her?

"Are you nervous?"

She looks sideways and almost has to do a double take. Violet hair and violet eyes. Dark circles around them.

She knew, of course, that she would be meeting people who had once been merely characters, but that idea that she would speak to them was… unnerving. She hadn't had time to really feel anything with Twice. Now that she'd more aware, it's new, different. Exciting? Her stomach twists with jittery nerves and she realizes exactly how out of her element she was. Cities, fine. Fights in the dark? Easy.

A classroom where she isn't the teacher?

She feels suddenly, horribly lost. Her leg starts bouncing faster.

"Am I that obvious?" she asks, making sure to phrase a question instead of an answer. She doesn't like the idea of being brainwashed. Her smile is sheepish.

Shinso looks her over briefly. There's no real judgement in it. Just a spark of competition in his violet eyes. River tries to swallow her own revelry at the prospect of what was to come.

"I'm River, by the way. River Quinton."

He eyes her briefly and for a moment she wonders if he'll introduce himself. He's not here to make friends. He's hear to be a hero, isn't he?

"Hitoshi Shinso" he says at last.

"Nice to meet you!" She wants to say more, but paper is put in front of her and the test begins. She ignores the irritated look the teacher shot at her clothes. She's very certain that everyone here thinks she's just a joke. She knows better.

This is a chance she's never had before. A chance bought by kindness and death. She bows her head over the test and begins.

She's expecting to fight, and struggle, and maybe have to cheat. She barely has to try.

The only parts that give her trouble are the questions on hero law and a few of the most modern history questions. Past that, it's not difficult. Maths, sciences, English is a piece of cake. English feels like she's cheating, it's so easy.

She puts her pen down and waits, trying to calm herself.

She uses the rest of the time allotted for test takers to think over what she's about to do. It should be simple, get as many points as possible, but she was once River Kelly and with that came tribulations and crucibles and more corners than she wanted to focus on.

It should have been simple, and yet it is not. Reality is rarely as easy as fiction and desire conflicts with rational thoughts. So she sits and she stews.

She can't let anyone know what she can do. She can't let anyone know her full capabilities right off the bat. Can she? She's supposed to be a high schooler, she's supposed to be young, to have only had her power for a decade.

She is supposed to be a girl with a quirk who has had it for ten years, not a woman with a power older than paper given to her twenty years prior and already tried and tested.

She feels like a fool for never going out and seeking others like herself, like Taro.

 _Think back. Remember your limitations when you first began. Remember before you understood how it works. I'm supposed to be a hero. So I can't be very offensive. It's not good for offense if I'm not trying to kill someone with it. Or worse. So, only defense. And, only the very basics. Don't show off. Pace yourself, Riv._

An elbow hits her ribs and she looks up to see Shinso watching her. The test time is over and they're explaining the point system. She cringes and bows her head sheepishly.

"Sorry."

"It's fine. Did you hear what they said?" he nods to the board and she nods back, once more avoiding answering a question verbally.

"Hey, Shinso," she sits back in her chair and flashes her teeth at him, holding up her fist. "Let's kick some ass in there, yeah?"

His violet eyes brighten in surprise and a half smile touches his face. He taps his fist to hers.

"Yeah."

She doesn't need to change with the rest of the girls taking the test, but she does manage to borrow someone's hair band. She ties the reds of her hair back in three twists instead of braiding it like usual, keeping her hair out of her face.

She enters the mock city and breaths in.

She's in the same one as Shinso and when she sees him she waves cheerfully before looking back at the set. She has to focus on what she's doing. Holding back, with a power like hers, is difficult. Especially when it would be so easy to just destroy the robots by looking at them.

 _Be a defense hero. Be a defense hero. Be a defense hero._

Words she never thought she would say become a constant mantra in her head and she moves into position. River stretches one arm over her chest and then the other, popping her shoulders and her back. She moves on to her legs, loosening up. She's going to need a lot of agility for what she's about to pull off. It's probably pretty stupid but…

No one needs to know what she can do.

The alarm sounds.

She takes off at a dead run. All she has to do is stop the robots, not destroy them. She can do that. She can do that. Even it would be easier to destroy them, one after the other.

A flash of metal tears around a street corner and the first robot appears. Paint on its head marks it as being worth one point. She points at the ground and makes a line with her finger, dust picking up even when she hasn't touched it. One straight line in front, she swings her body to make another line in the dirt on either side of where the robot is charging.

She lunges to the side, along the edge in the ground when the robot is inside the markings, dives to the rear in time to close it into a square.

The robot slams into the air and doesn't move.

"What was that?" someone asks. She looks to the side, and finds Monoma and Shinso watching her. It's Monoma who speaks, and so she answers.

"I can make invisible barriers," she explains. She tosses Shinso a smile. "There's not much that can break them, these robots included. Present Mic said all we have to do is incapacitate them right? I'm not much good at offense," a bold faced lie, "But I can at least do this."

Another robot, three points, tears around the opposite street corner. It barrels straight for the two boys, who are still looking at her. River flicks her fingers again and the cement splits. The three pointer is stopped inches from Shinso and Monoma and she rushes to circle it with more walls.

 _Four points._

"Better watch it boys," she winks at them and takes off running again.

 _As long as I stay light on my feet and move fast, I'll be fine._

She keeps at it, catching more and more robots in the simplest traps she's ever set. She has to remember where all of them are, how many there are and how big each one is. The more she makes, the harder it becomes.

While she moves she shoots out a few walls for the people who are too slow or too close to getting hit. If she's trying to rack up rescue points too, no one needs to know that.

Eventually she's stopped keeping track of points and focuses on just keeping the robots in place. She can hear people yelling around her. Counting points, cursing each other. Cursing her, for putting robots in boxes where no one else can destroy them.

By the time the ground starts to shake she's out of breath. It's been a long time since she's been this active.

She has to stop and try to catch her breath while still holding twelve boxes she can't see in place. She has forty eight barriers in play, and the longer she holds them the harder it gets. It would be easier if she could see where she was holding them, but she has to suck it up and deal. She's not at her limit yet. Not even close.

Then the ground opens up and the biggest robot she's ever seen in her life rises up out of the city streets. It's not really fair to say that, seeing as the biggest robot she's ever seen before was the tree pointer she trapped earlier, but still.

It can't hold a candle to the massive mass of metal that lifts itself above them. A behemoth towering above the children below. For the first time in years, fear worms its way into her heart. Her pulse picks up. She breathes harder.

With the limitations she's set for herself, she can't beat it. It's too big.

None the less, she's sorely tempted to put up a barrier right in the middle of it, and cut the thing straight in half.

 _Defense hero, Riv,_ She reminds herself, and runs as far away as she can. She stumbles on to another three pointer and makes time to capture it, while she's running and while she holds all of the other robots she's caught at bay. She's mindful to draw it physically. It's easier that way, but slower too, and it's one of the limitations she's set for herself. Her plans are half formed at best, but she didn't spend all of her life as an academic.

Not even close.

A timer sounds.

It doesn't feel like ten minutes. It feels like ten seconds, twenty at most.

None the less River finally releases her hold on all of the robots and makes her way to the exit. She's out of breath, her whole body feels cold and now that the adrenaline has worn off she realizes that somewhere in there she twisted her ankle. She's covered in sweat, her hair is stuck to her head and she probably looks like a total mess.

She walks back inside with the biggest smile ever painted across her face.

By the time she gets back to her apartment that night dark has fallen and she's a bit more in her head. The fighting cleared it and she's paying more attention to everything, not going on the autopilot of regaining all she had lost.

Her apartment is not in a very nice place in the city. She can see it when she gets in the convenience store down the street and when she looks closer at the building itself. There are a few bricks missing in the corner and the locks are broken on a lot of the doors.

Her neighbors don't come to greet her, except for her brief run in with Twice.

She can live with that.

She's lived in worse places, fuckallnowhere Oklahoma, the rougher parts of LA. A run down apartment at the edges of Mustafar isn't so bad.

Musutafu, whatever.

She walks in and Tarmac is there to greet her, lifting onto his legs and reaching his claws to hook into her black pajama pants. She scoops him off of the floor and sweeps him into her arms, pressing her face into his fur so she can breath in. The groceries drop to the floor.

"Do you know where we are, Tarmac?" she asks, placing kisses along the cats back. He decides he's had enough and starts struggling, but she holds him prisoner for a few more minutes.

"We're in My Hero Academia. And, I'm trying to be a hero. How weird is that?"

Her eyes start to cloud before she finally let's herself cry. It's been building up all day, suppressed and shoved away but now it swells up in her stomach, beats against her ribs and she doesn't know if she's laughing with the joy of new possibility, crying with all of her loss, or shaking with fury over what Carter did.

Tarmac slips away, leaving her to break apart.


	3. Some Assembly Required

River managed to find a job waiting tables within the week that would let her work only after noon and evenings once school started, and by the time Friday rolled around she had received some mail too. An envelope with UA logo stamped on it.

She opened it with a flick of her fingers, sheering off the top of the envelope.

Tarmac came over from where he'd been harassing a moth in the corner to watch the hologram of All Might pop up. He immediately attacked, flying straight through the image.

"I AM HERE! As a projection!" the hologram rippled and frizzed before solidifying again. River grabbed Tarmac before he could jump through it again, holding the feline to her chest tightly. Claws sunk into her boobs.

"Asshole," she told Tarmac.

All Might's image stood proud in front of her, hands on his hips.

"River Quinton," He boomed, pronouncing her name with a perfectly American accent. "Congratulation! You've been accepted into UA High Schools Hero Course!"

River smiled a sat back on the floor, her hands behind her. She wasn't even a little bit surprised.

"You passed with the highest score of the practical exam, 100 total point!"

Until he said that. River's mouth fell open. Even holding back as much as she had been, she still got top score? That was crazy. That was- not even close to what she'd been trying for. The judges must have given more points for the times she'd blocked for other people than she'd been expecting. Even if all of the robots she'd caught had been three pointers besides the first one, that was still only thirty seven points.

So, at least sixty three rescue points? That was crazy. That was more than what Deku had gotten for stopping the giant.

Had she really managed to make that much of an impression just by holding them captive for a few minutes?

Hero standards were… pretty low, all things considered.

Tarmac finally tried to eat All Might again, and the hologram shut off. It left the pair sitting in the living room, warm sunlight streaming in. She didn't have work today, and there wasn't enough in the house for her to have any chores again. So, River stretched out on the floor, arms out and legs spread in Lazy Starfish Position and closed her eyes for a nap in the sunlight.

She only woke up when Tarmac curled up on her chest.

The couple underneath her started fighting again, a husband cheating on his wife and a wife cheating on her girlfriend with her husband. Or something. She wasn't paying that much attention.

Right then she was content to relax with her precious Tarmac.

* * *

In the apartment there was only a single drawer that she had dedicated to clothes. She only had a handful of them. The pajama's she had arrived in, a few shirts, a few pants, two changes of her work uniform and now she had two changes of her school uniform to add to it.

She had never worn a school uniform before.

She was starting to feel like a real teenager as she put it on, pulling at the skirt and adjusting the jacket until she was satisfied with what she saw in the mirror. The reds in her hair she had actually braided this time and tied all three pieces to the back of her head. She would have looked cuter with a clip, but she didn't have money to spent on pretty things, so she would have to deal with not having make up or hair clips or anything like that. The cutest part of her was the bunched up socks that settled over her sneakers.

She checked that Tarmac had enough food in the middle of his bowl and enough water to last him the day before she grabbed her school bag and tossed it over her shoulder. She hadn't accounted on how much of her money was going to go into getting ready for school. She wouldn't be eating much for the next week, until she got her first pay check.

Still, she looked cute! River slipped out the door and shut it firmly behind her.

Once again, she left at the same time as her neighbor.

She paused at her door mat to look up at him. He looked back her, looking equal part mean and tired. He looked like he should crawl back under the covers but he wanted to go to the gym and punch something.

"Oh, hi," she smiled and waved at him, cheerful this morning. She was especially bright and bubbly, some that that used to annoy the crap out of her over worked, under slept, stressed out students. It inevitably meant that they were going to get a pop quiz.

"Good morning," he said slowly.

"I'm River," she told him brightly. "Sorry I didn't say hi the other day, I was in a rush. What was your name?"

"I'm Bubaigawara," he said. She could smell the cigarette's on his clothes. "Are you on your way to school?"

"Yep," she pulled at her sleeves, a hint of self consciousness touching her. "Bubaigawara, like that the train station in Tokyo?"

"You've been to Tokyo?" he sounded surprised. To be fair, she was without a doubt American. Her accent was pretty bad when she wasn't trying, and she was the only white person she'd seen since she got there.

"Yeah. I lived there for a little while when I was younger, and now I'm here. And, now I've got to not be here, because I have to be in time for class. Nice to meet you, Bubaigawara," she smiled brightly at him again and made her escape. She knew that he was a little bit nuts, but he'd seemed pretty normal. Lots of people seemed pretty normal, until you really got to know them.

This time when she looked around she drank in the world with amazement and excitement. Her purpose, to get to school, was clear but she had given herself enough time to revel in the world she now got to live in.

The people that walked the streets were fearless.

They laughed and talked like there was no darkness in the world, they existed with their wild hair and green skin and strange abnormalities that, in the world she had left behind, would have left them ostracized and lonely.

These were people who lived in the era of superheroes. People who had been born after the panic of the new and the frightening, the uncertainty that came with change and the unknown. This was a place where the more bizarre you were the better, and the normal were obsolete.

The world was cruel, but beautiful.

She walked past a boy with gills lining his jaw and tried not to stair, despite the elation that filled her whenever she saw a physical Quirk. It made her so happy, so see it.

It made her so happy to be there.

Even on the train ride, shoved between a man who smelled like hot dog water and a girl who's high standing hair tickled her nose, her mood did not dim. She was undisturbed by the rushing crowds, flowing through them like water.

As fast as she could move without running she rushed through the street, a fire brimming in her chest. The ember that been pressed under her ribs was back, stoked into a steady flame. Her second chance. Her favor.

She turned the corner and burst through the gates to UA. The glass towers hung over her, sturdy and shining in the pink morning light. Other students milled about, in groups and alone, everyone making their ways towards the new school year.

A head full of messy violet hair caught her eye and River changed her direction, jogging over to the only truly familiar face she could find. Oh, she saw Monoma and Nejire, and Ashido and Ibara were hard to miss. Even though she knew who they were she did not know them. She only knew-

"Shinso!" She cried, tossing her arm across his shoulders. Shinso stumbled under her surprise attack, his dim eyes locking on her. A sort of light touched them, recognition sparking.

"Oh, it's you. River."

"Yeah it's me! You made it too! Told you we'd kick ass," she grinned at him, squeezed his shoulders and finally backed off a little. Shinso scoffed.

"You may have, but I'm here for general studies. I didn't make it into the hero course." His hands clenched at his sides.

"Oh. That sucks, dude, I'm sorry," she said, softening her voice. "Still, you got this far. I'm sure you'll be able to transfer in later, if you work hard enough. With you quirk-" she stopped. Painted a frown on her face. "Uh, what is your quirk?"

"You were going to give me a pep talk without knowing what my quirk was?" he arched a brow at her. River scratched her neck nervously.

"Yeah. Sorry?" she half expected him to catch her then.

He didn't. Instead he narrowed his eyes at her, just a fraction.

"My quirk is unsuited for being a hero. It's called, Brainwashing."

She could only stare at Shinso, who stood in front of her. She could see it now. In his eyes. He resented her. There was something else in them too. Fear, maybe?

"Like, you take control of people's minds?" she clarified, trying to think of what else she could say.

"That's right." His shoulders were tense. He _was_ worried.

Precious boy.

"That's so cool!" she flashed him a grin. He startled, jerking back from her. "I mean, if you can just take control of people, you could just make a villain surrender without anyone getting hurt, right? Or, you could just force someone to release hostages without risking anyone's life. You would be perfect for hostage negotiations, or rescues, or talking people off of bridges," she listed all of the possibilities off on her fingers, gold eyes starting to shine.

"You- You really think so?"

"Hell yeah! Hey, hey, you gotta get into the hero course somehow right? By impressing teachers or other people yeah?" she waited until he nodded. "Then, why don't you train with me? I know my quirk is only good for defense," another lie, "but, I'm really good at fighting with my fists. I can show you some stuff, if you'd like?"

"I'd… like that. Yeah," he nodded, slowly.

River plucked his hand and produced a pen, scribbling her phone number onto his palm quickly.

"Give me a call, or text me and we can meet up. Walk me to class?" she let go of his hand and offered her arm. He didn't take it, but he nodded.

"Sure. Might as well see where the other lucky kids go to class."

"That's the spirit!" It really wasn't, but she understood. Shinso, it was clear, was not a very social individual, but he was very easy to talk to, and didn't seem to mind when River talked at him about nothing and everything. Mostly about how interesting the city was and how weird the school was set up. Each class got a different tower. One for General Studies, one for Hero Studies, one for Support, and one for Business. She thought it was weird that they weren't all together.

She thought it was even weirder that they had the same classroom almost all day long.

"That's right. You're American, aren't you?" As if it weren't obvious already.

"Yeah. You know what else is weird? That tax is on the sales tag!"

"… you mean it's not in America?"

"Nope. Buy something there and you don't actually know how much you're paying. The tag'll say it's 99 cents but then you get rung up and with tax its 1.08 or something."

"So how do you go shopping? Just, guess and hope?"

"Pretty much. We've got some convoluted things going on in that country, ya know? Oh, hey, this is my. 1-A."

They stopped in front of a door high enough for a giraffe to walk through. River stopped in front of it and took a deep breath. She looked at her new friend, smiling at him again.

"Let's both kick ass this year, Shinso!" She offered him her fist again, and once more he tapped them together.

"Yeah," he agreed quietly. "I'll see you around," he said, and walked away.

River pushed the door aside and stepped in. She counted desks. Twenty. So, if she was here, someone else had been bumped out. She had the brief fear that it was Midoriya who hadn't made it, and she had ruined everything. Then, she remembered that he had been in seventh place over all. So, he was here. That meant someone else hadn't made it through.

She looked over the kids already there. Kaminari, Yaoyarozu, Bakugou, Tokoyami, Jiro and Sero. So them, Deku, Uaraka, Todoroki, Iida, and Kirishima were certainties. That left Aoyama, Ashido, Shoji, Koda, Sato, Ojiro, Tsu, Hagakura, and Mineta.

She propped her chin in her hand, tucking her feet under her seat and looked around her. Kaminari caught her eye and winked. She blew him a kiss just to see his shocked face.

 _Shocked face. Oh god._

She started snickering at her own brain when the door was opened again and in bounced a bright pink girl with little horns in her curly hair. Ashido looked over the room, her gold eyes set against black and River had the most intense desire to grab her face and look right in them.

"Hey, hey! Hey everyone!" Ashido waved brightly at the mostly quiet class and claimed the seat right in front of Kaminari. She was followed quickly by Kirishima, who sat right next to River herself, and Aoyama, who sat beside Ashido. More and more people came in and River started a conversation with Tokoyami as soon as he sat behind her.

He, too, was philosopher, and within minutes they were trading quotes.

"Alright, alright, Friedrich Nietzsche," she announced, switching from Voltaire. Todoroki took a minute.

" 'Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings – always darker, emptier, and simpler.' "

"Nice! Let's see… 'God is dead. God remains dead. Yet his shadow still looms. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned had bled to death under out knives? Who will wipe this blood off of us? What water is there for us to clean outselves?' "

Todoroki narrowed his eyes at her in thought.

" ' Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process they themselves do not become monsters. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.' "

" 'without music, life would be a mistake'. You pick next."

"Lao Tzu," he didn't even think about it. River cocked her head, contemplating. The founder of Taoism? Tokoyami was very well read. She was impressed. Then again, this was Japan. Maybe she should have been more impressed that he knew Voltaire and Nietzsche.

" 'Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.' "

" 'A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.' "

" 'When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you.' ''

" 'Knowing others is wisdom. Knowing yourself is enlightenment.' It's your turn."

"My turn again? Let's try… Mulla Sadra?" she offered.

A commotion up front stopped their game and the pair looked over in time to see Iida and Bakugou getting into a weird argument about a foot on a desk. In the doorway stood Deku. Wild hair, a smattering of freckles.

He was kind of adorable.

He was also followed by Uraraka.

River stopped playing her game to try and figure out who was missing. Everyone was there, she thought. Shoji, Sato, Tsu, Ojiro-

Koda.

River felt a little bad about that one. Koda was a sweet kid, and his talking to animals things was one of Rivers favorite quirks. If she replaced anyone, she would have wanted Mineta. He kind of sucked.

But, beggars couldn't be choosers, could they?

Aizawa walked in before Deku and Uraraka, who scrambled for the only seats left. The sleepy teacher stood in front of the class, looking out over them from under his limp hair.

"Welcome to UAs' Hero Course. It took 8 seconds before you all shut up. That's not going to work. Time is precious. Rational students would understand that. Hello I'm Aizawa, your teacher." He said all of this blandly, then fished out a jacket from his sleeping bag. "Right, get to it. Put these on and head outside," he ordered, handing out their new gym clothes.

River took hers with a thanks. It was time for the first test.

Her power- her _quirk_ , wasn't any good for the physical fitness test they were about to do, but that was fine. If she was creative enough she could use it for the standing long jump, or the ball throw, or even the distance run, if she just blocked everyone else from following after her. Actually, if she sabotaged everyone else, she would definitely win.

But, she was supposed to be a hero now, wasn't she?

And, she was supposed to be a novice. She couldn't be too creative now, could she? She had to remember to hold back. So this would really be a test, for her, of her physical capabilities.

"Hey, you're the one that went to the exams in her pajamas!"

River broke out of her thoughts to see Ashido pointing a finger in her face. Her eyes crossed trying to stare at it. It was so pink.

"Oh? Yeah, that was me," she shrugged, shameless.

"I can't believe it. I would never show up to a school thing in pajamas!" Hagakure cried. River was pretty sure she was staring at her. River scratched her neck, trailing along when the girls left the room to go to the locker rooms a few floors down.

"Well I didn't have a school uniform. So, it didn't really matter what I wore. I was gonna stick out no matter what, so I wanted to be comfortable."

They didn't need know she'd been in such a shocked dissociative state she hadn't even realized what she was wearing, or that the only thing that cut through the fog in her brain was the threat of giant robots. Nope, they didn't need to know that at all.

"You school didn't require a uniform before this?" Yaoyarozu looked interested. River took her assigned locker and started changing. She turned to face the other girls, slipping out of one shirt and into another swiftly. There were a few scars on her torso, the biggest one from a botched surgery and a few more from a car accident, and the rest just from life. Things normaly fifteen year olds hadn't experienced yet. She was lucky enough that no one else was paying that much attention to her as she stuffed her feet back into her shoes and started walking to the door.

"Nope. The last school I went to was in America, and only private schools require uniforms. I went to public school. So, it's not the first time I've been to school in pajamas. "

This boggled Yaoyarozu's mind. Ashido bounced up along her side.

"So is it weird being here? Is this school different from you last one in different ways? What was American school like?"

"Um, I dunno? It's like school? Each class is in a different room and taught by a different teacher. You have core courses and electives, and graduation requirements. I guess… there's clubs and sports teams?"

"Are there cheerleaders?" Hagakura appeared on her other side again. "I've seen cheerleaders in movies!"

"Yeah, there are. Each school has their own cheer leading team, they perform during breaks at football and basketball games, and they have cheer competitions too. The really cool stuff gets done by marching bands though," she added. She wasn't too worried about lying. She'd never been to a high school before, but college wasn't that different right? "Oh, and you call your teachers by first names."

"What? Seriously?"

"Sure."

"Oh wow. Things sure are different," Uraraka mused. "You're Japanese is really good, by the way!"

"I big world I guess," River shrugged, then smiled. "And thanks. I do my best!" The girls came to a stop in front of Aizawa. Sunlight warmed Rivers face and she took a brief moment to bask in the light, drinking in vitamins while Aizawa scared the shit out of all of the kids there by threatening to expel someone.

She opened her eyes in time to realize she was being watched by Aizawa.

"River. You placed first in the entrance exams. Give the ball a throw. You're free to use your quirk. When it touches the ground, it'll tell your distance."

River didn't miss his wording. Aizawa was a nicer teacher than she'd thought. He gave her the answer right in his request.

"I can use my quirk?" it felt so weird to use that word in regards to herself.

"As long as you stay in the circle."

She pressed her lips together. Did she really want to do it? Or, hold back more?

No. She stood straighter, and flicked her fingers out. One line former in the ground, but this time her barrier was at an angle. She bit her lip, concentrating on the other one. She finished up and stepped back, winding up.

"I don't get it, I thought we were using our quirks for this? She didn't do anything!"

River ignored Mineta. She threw the ball as hard as she could, adding a spin. It flew forwards, already pretty far before it dropped and hit her barrier. It dipped down, hit the other barrier that formed a wide, sightless V, and lifted back up. The speed of her throw and the speed of gravity sent it hurdling off of the edge of the second wall before it finally landed.

She looked to Aizawa.

"175 meters," he said showed her the reading. That would have meant more to her if she had a better understanding of meters. What was it in feet?

"Cool," she said simply. Bakugou would kick her ass with it.

They moved on. Past the softball throw she didn't think there was anything else she could use a barrier for, so she settled on sprinting as fast as she could, jumping as far as possible, and stretching herself out. She didn't do amazing on anything with her quirk, but without it she kicked some butt.

Her ranking ended up being 5th.

If River was a little proud of herself, who could blame her?

She didn't pay too much attention to Deku's big conflict. It was hard to be too invested when she knew what was going to happen. That didn't mean she wasn't impressed with his power. She was impressed with everyone's power.

"Uraraka you're so cool!" she grabbed the girls arm, delight spreading across her face when she hit infinity. "Hey, hey you know what? You're hero name should be 'Infinity Girl!' " was what she'd thought for two years already.

"o-oh, you think so?" Uraraka looked delightfully surprised.

"Yeah! This year is gonna be awesome!"

"You think so, do you?" Aizawa appeared at their shoulders, a dark presence that loomed above the pair. River was one of the tallest girls in class but the pro was a good half a foot taller than she was, even slumped over and exhausted.

"Yep," River said, fearless. "We're gonna kick ass, and work our butts off!"

Aizawa scoffed at her. "If you think this is all fun and games, you should just go home."

"I'm not going anywhere, teach."

Aizawa looked at her a little closer and for a second River wondered if she had misspoken. Then he shook his head and wandered off.

"We're done for the day. You can pick up your syllabus in the classroom on your way out. See you tomorrow," he said, and disappeared around the corner.

River was left standing along with the others.

It was a little awkward, everyone wasn't quite used to each other and no one knew what to think of their weird first day. Finally, Bakugou left, followed by Todoroki, and eventually everyone was wandering off. Some paired off and some went alone. River changed her clothes and collected her things before she left the school. She wanted to spend some time with Tarmac before she had to work.


	4. Tag Teams

However shiny and bright and muscle-y the anime made All Might, none of it could compare to how he looked when he burst into the room, all red and blue and a white. The light that shone off of him burrowed its way into even River's heart and the hope that he brought sprung into her, a well spring of fearless potential and joy.

"I AM HERE! Coming through the door like a hero!"

There was a magnetism to him that threatened to draw River in and consume her if she wasn't careful. She could see, now, how he might be a Symbol of Peace. She could see, now, how people could look upon him and think all was right with the world.

How strange, that the darkness she had been a part of for so long had been burned away.

Death has freed her from being a Death Dealer. There was some poetry in that.

River listened to the vague description All Might gave them of their training but she, like the others, was excited over getting her uniform.

She hadn't known what to do with that, when it was time to fill out the forms. She knew what she had worn for Anne, and Gabe, but those weren't uniforms she wanted to replicate when she was trying to hard to change herself into a hero. So, she went a different path. No red, none at all.

She took her suitcase with everyone else and followed the girls back to the locker room to change. Ashido was practically bouncing in place, she was so excited. Uraraka wasn't much better.

The body suite that River pulled on was mostly black, with gold designs sharpening along her ribs, from her shoulders and pointing down her collarbone, and more that settled on her waste, hips, and thighs that circled inwards to join between her legs. Thigh high gold boots slipped over on top and on the back of each of her gloves was a patch of gold that pointed sharply back at her arms and stopped at each finger. The suite even went up to frame her face, mocking her widows peak and pointing down around her eyes. A black utility belt, detailed with gold, secured it all.

A wide visor tinted gold circled the upper half of her face and secured over her ears.

It clashed with the red in her hair, but that was fine.

It fit, she could move in it and the heels in the boots were perfect height.

She held her head high and took her place at Ashido's side. The fire under her ribs burned brighter.

"Now you all look the part, let's get some practice in," All Might said, and started drawing teams. If she was taking Koda place, then she would be on Sato's team, again… someone. She didn't remember who. Sato, she could work with him. If he did offense she could be defense. And, whoever they were up against would just plain lose.

She turned to Sato, waiting for their names to be called.

"Team E! River Quinton, and Izuku Midoriya!"

She stared at All Might, bewildered. That wasn't right, Izuku was supposed to be with Ururaka. Right? Right. So…

So it really was random. Oh. She should have been paying better attention.

"Team F, Eijiro Kirishima and Tenya Iida. Team G Katsuki Bakugou and Kyoka Jiro. Team H Fumikage Tokoyami and Denki Kaminari! Team I Shoto Todoroki and Momo Yaoyorozu. And last but not least, team J Mashirao Ojiro and Tsuyu Asui."

She looked around, trying to figure out the other groups. Ashido had Sato, Uraraka had Hagakure, Mineta and Shoji were a team, and Sero looked a little displeased with Aoyama already.

"I declare that the first match with be… THESE GUYS!" All Might held up two balls. E and G.

So, some things were just destined, huh?

River and Izuku were Heroes, and Bakugou and Jiro were Villains.

"This couldn't be less fair," River said dryly. Izuku looked at her, but there was more fire in his eyes than there was in hers. She understood. This was important to him. So maybe… maybe she should just let him and Bakugou duke it out? As opposed to her fighting him and accidentally letting slip that she wasn't as much as a novice as the rest. She hummed as she thought.

 _'Strum the tune of your existence, and sing that you're here. A new journey is beginning now. Each of the ever-changing seasons we live through gives us wisdom and strength'_

If she could get up to the floor with the weapon, it would be easy to stick it in a barrier and be done with the whole exercise. Jiro, might hear her coming but Bakugou wouldn't give a damn about her, he'd be totally focused on Izuku.

 _(Just looks like a survival game)_

Which meant that Jiro was someone she was going to have to handle. She would have to avoid her sound blasts, and there was no way for her to sneak up on her.

 _But when it comes to the love we left behind in the flow of time. We've even forgotten how to forget about it._

So, they would split up. She would take Jiro head to head, block her in a barrier maybe, and then touch the weapon. Or, incapacitate her. The tape would make a good weapon, if she used it right.

Or, alternatively…

She smiled.

Perfect.

"Hey, Izuku, if you don't have a plan I have one. But it probably sucks," she warned. She looped her arm with his and dragged the boy away as Bakugou and Jiro went to to get in place.

Izuku turned into a flushed, stuttering mess as soon as she touched him, and River only then remembered that he was a little on the shy side when it came to girls. Oh well.

"So, what was you plan?" Izuku asked.

"Well… I figure, Bakugou kinda hates you, yeah?" he cringed, but nodded, "So, we use you as bait and I stick him in a box, then we tag team Jiro."

"Do you really think you can hold Kacchan?" Izuku looked doubtful. River elbowed him and let go.

"There's only very specific circumstances that'll break my barriers, and an explosion won't cut it. So, you got a better idea?" she proper her hand on her hip and waited. Izuku shook his head, touching his chin.

"No, no, that's not a bad idea. Kacchan will definitely come after me. How fast can you put up those barriers?"

"If I already have two of them ready the others won't take long, but I'll have to be within sight and preferably closer than that to do it."

"Perfect," Izuku started to smile, but it was strained and fearful. River clapped his shoulder.

"We're gonna win!"

River walked into the building with Izuku at her side, a calm over taking her. Her shoulders dropped, his eye lids lowered and she took a soft breath, breathing in the scent of metal. There was a hint of Jiro's perfume in it, and the unique tang of explosives. Jiro and Bakugou walked in this way as well.

There were a lot of blind corners that Bakugou could come at them around. But, his real target was going to be Izuku. River glanced at Izuku and nodded shortly. She pointed two fingers at the ground and prepared.

They barely made it to the second floor when a sound around the corner tipped her off. She flung herself sideways, against the wall to hide herself when Bakugou threw himself out of hiding, aiming an explosion at Izuku.

Izuku barely dodged it in time.

River felt a little bit bad. She could have stopped Bakugou as soon as she knew where he was, but she was still holding herself at bay.

"Nice dodge, Deku," Bakugou stood up, levelling an angry grin Izuku's way. River was struck with the sudden thought that, wild and filled with fury, he looked a little hot. The thought creeped her out and she quickly banished it, not in time to miss Izuku throwing Bakugou over his shoulder and into the ground.

Izuku stood tall and for an instant River felt a fierce pride well up inside of her.

"From now on, Deku is the name of a hero!"

He looked back at her.

"River, now!"

"Right," she jumped forwards. She got three walls up, the tell dug into the metal flooring, before Bakugou launched himself out of the opening she left for him.

"You're too slow! Stay out of this, you damned extra!"

"Extra!" River bristled. Bakugou threw himself at them and this time it was River who stepped in, putting herself right in his path so she could slam her elbow into his face. She felt his nose crack under the force of it. They separated, Bakugou stumbling away to grip his bleeding nose.

"Nice way to fight, by the way," she called, "Arms down, _face presented!_ "

Bakugou turned his fury on her. River wasn't even remotely afraid. She ducked and dodged each of his attacks, the explosions barely ruffling her hair. It wasn't fair. Bakugou was good, but she was in a league of her own.

Her steps stumbled when she realized how it might look if she was _too_ good at all of this.

Bakugou saw his opened and slammed his gauntlet into the side of her face, sending her tumbling down the hallway. Away from him and Izuku. He had a one track mind.

Fine.

She drew the lines along the edges of the wall, stretching the barrier along the hallway completely. It cut off all escape routes. Which meant that when Izuku tried to flee, he ran face forwards into one. It distracted Bakugou long enough for River to get to his side, shove him against the wall and set up a third wall.

Bakugou snarled and struck at her. The explosion was blocked by the forth wall. She carefully drew another wall inside of the cube, then let one of her barriers down so it wasn't blocking the other hallways anymore. Once the walls were up, as big as they were was as big as they would be. She could neither shrink nor expand them.

"Let's go," she said to Izuku, who was staring at her, his mouth open.

"You- You caught him!"

River shrugged. "Well yeah. That was the plan, wasn't it? Let's go. We still have Jiro to worry about."

"How long can you hold him there?" Izuku asked, taking off running with her.

"As long as I remember to keep it there. It doesn't take too much concentration, so we should be good." As long as Bakugou didn't get out.

They ran up the stairs, towards the room Jiro had set up in.

"We should split up," Izuku said, "There's two doors to the room, I'll take the one on the east side, you take the west."

"Sure," River nodded at him and took her door. Jiro would be expecting them, and they didn't know what awaited them beyond the room. That gave her the advantage. All either of them had to do was get close enough to her, but her legs were going to be a problem.

Izuku held up three fingers, then two, then one.

River shoved the door open and jumped through. She was running as soon as she was in, rushing towards Jiro, who had planted herself in front of the big missile. Her earphones were already splugged in and as soon as the pair burst in she activated it.

River skidded to a stop and threw up a barrier that stretched the length of the room, bringing the attack to a halt. Or, she thought it would.

Instead, she was sent flying backwards, her head spinning and her ears pounding hard with her pulse and Jiro's.

"Oh shit!" she clapped her hands over her ears. The wall came down. Izuku managed to get around the blasts and attack Jiro head on while River was stuck feeling like she was going to puke. The world spun and swam and she barely had the mind to try and pop her ears.

She was left on the ground for a good few seconds before she managed to get her feet back under her. She was in time to see Izuku trying to fight Jiro, who was evading him and blocking his punches with her earphone jacks.

 _Why isn't he using One for All? Full Cowl- oh, wait._

River stood up, struggling to clear her thoughts. She took a breath, ignoring how her hands shook. Nothing had ever gotten through her barriers before, no attack. But, she'd never been attacked by sound before, and they didn't stop sound.

 _Oh shit. I have a weakness._

She filed that information away for later and while Izuku had Jiro cornered she ran around the edge of the room, keeping at least partially in the shadows. The floor under her rumbled, the building starting to shake around them. It almost knocked her off of her feet but she held steady. Jiro was not so lucky. It gave Izuku the time he needed to get the tape on her. River ran for the bomb when the floor underneath them literally exploded, and out soared an absolutely livid Bakugou.

River's mouth twitched.

"K-Kacchan! How did you get out?" Izuku stood a startled step away from the boy, who was practically on fire.

"There wasn't a roof or a floor on that stupid trap. Hey you," he turned his furious eyes on her, "Curly Top, if you thought that lame box would hold me you're an idiot!" He lifted his palm to her and an explosion rocketed towards her. River took a step back and braced herself, pointing two hands forwards with her finger tips together. Lines appeared in the cement under her feet and the explosion roared to either side of her, split neatly down the middle.

River narrowed her eyes. She couldn't feel the heat from the explosion, and the shock wave didn't pass through. So, why had sound worked? Could she block gasses? What about light based attacks? Her barriers were invisible, so was she vulnerable to those as well? She'd never had to block them before.

She didn't let the shield drop even when the smoke cleared and she got a look at Bakugou flying around Izuku like a bird. It was even more badass in real life than it was in the anime.

Izuku caught her eye and swiftly looked away, trying to focus on Bakugou. River caught his meaning though.

She looked at the missile and and finally let her barrier drop, only to create a new one that spanned the length of the room. She jumped across the hole in the floor Bakugou left, landing on the other side and planting her hand on the missile just as the boy let off one of his big gauntlet explosions. She had time enough to throw a wall in front of Izuku without looking too impressive.

"TEAM E WINS!" All Might roared into their ear bud.

River cringed, the sound making her a little dizzy again.

Bakugou stared at her in shock. She blew him a kiss, like she had Kaminari, if only to watch him turn red with anger.

She couldn't stop the giggle that bubbled up from her chest, shaking her shoulders and filling her up. She was really starting to feel like a hero. Like she might, actually, belong here.

She went over to pick up Jiro, absently wondering if Izuku and Bakugou had had their weird fighting heart to heart thing. She had never understood that. When River fought, really fought, it wasn't to get a point across. It was just to win, there was no talking involved. No bonding. Just pain.

This world was a little different, she guessed.

Though, if she ever caught herself monologue, she was going to shoot herself.

"Hey, pretty lady, how ya holding up?" River asked when Jiro stirred as she was moved.

"What?" she looked up at her, surprised. "Yeah, I'm fine. It just knocked me off my feet."

"Jeeze, these boys are crazy. Next time let's you and me try and team up. You can attack from right behind my walls! And, we can drop some sick beats," she wiggled her hand in front of her and posed in the goofiest way possible. Jiro laughed at her bad rapper impression.

The quartet made their way back to the observation room, Bakugou unnaturally quiet and withdrawn. While he was coming to terms with his first defeat, All Might started going over what they did well, and what they did poorly. She and Izuku had made a mistake in rushing in without more information on Jiro's where abouts and could have been going into a trap. Jiro hadn't been prepared for a fist fight. And Bakugou had gone totally overboard, compromising the structure of the building he was supposed to be protecting, leaving his partner behind and letting a person grudge crowd his judgement.

At the end of it, his massive hand dropped onto Rivers shoulders. Warmth rushed through her and she looked up at the massive man that loomed over her.

"In the end, however, the MVP goes to River, who immediately had a plan that took advantage of her opponents weaknesses, and who protected her teammate to the best of her abilities."

Pride swelled up inside of her and while she basked in the magnetic glow that made up All Might the next team went to work.

I vs J.

Todoroki and Yaoyarozu vs Ojiro and Tsu.

It went almost exactly like it had before. Even with Tsu instead of Hagakure, both fell to the ice that Todoroki used to eat up the building. Between bare feet and a frog, they never stood a chance. Even though she knew what was to come, River couldn't stop the thrill that raced through her at the sight of Todoroki's quirk in action. It was… beautiful. Even through the monitors she could see the shine of the ice, the soft float of breath through the air. Todoroki had such a pretty quirk. The cold even crept all the way to the viewing room, and River only regretted that a few frost flowers didn't bloom around them. Maybe, if she asked Todoroki really nicely, he would sing 'Let It Go' with her.

River looked to side and found Bakugou. The horror that dawned upon him, the way his limbs started to shake. River made the mistake of touching his shoulder and was rewarded with him flinching away from her. He looked at her, his red eyes so lost.

He stumbled out of the room, vanishing.

River was stopped from going after him by the return of Todoroki and Yaoyarozu, who looked a little put off. The other two walked in, still shaking even though they'd been thawed out. Ojiro was even carrying Tsu. Todoroki was, naturally, MVP.

Sero and Aoyama were the villains to Kirishima and Iida, and actually managed to win with a trap made of Sero's tape and a distraction that was the sparkling Aoyama. They made Sero MVP for coming up with the phan.

After that the villains were Tokoyami and Kaminari, who flirted heavily with the girls. Uraraka and Hagakure pulled a victory out by Hagakure floating her invisible self to simply touch the weapon while Uraraka let herself be seen trying to sneak in through the window. They were clever, clever girls, and Tokoyami and Kaminari's quirks clashed too much for them to be compatable. Hagakure was their MVP.

The last pair off was surprisingly even. Playing the villain Ashido had no problem melting Mineta's balls, and kicking him in the face, but Shoji and Sato paired off for a hard fist fight. In the end, Ashido and Sato managed to hold out until time ran out, and Sato's sugar rush wore off, securing their victory. Shoji, for his adaptability, was named MVP.

After class was dismissed River took her time changing back into her school uniform. She had to think. The teams were different for the practice. What else would be different? Had her mere presence totally changed the plot to come?

Oh, there were certainly still some things that would come to pass. The League of Villains would still attack the USJ, Bakugou was going to win the Sports Festival, and the summer training camp would probably be attacked at well. Stain would still attack Ingenium, so Iida would still go to Hosu and the Hero Killer would still become famous.

There were many things that, as long as she didn't go out of her way to change them, would stay the same.

Did she really want to let them stay the same though? She knew Iida. Was she still okay with letting his brother get crippled?

She was here to be a hero, so shouldn't a hero do something to change what was happening here?

She was meant to be a hero.

What would a hero do?

* * *

River liked her apartment building, if only because she could get to the roof top without any hassle. Some time, long ago, the lock had been broken off and now it was easily accessible to all of the tenants. Mostly, though, it was empty when River went up to lay in the sun and sing to Tarmac.

She didn't have any instruments, so she relied on her voice. She missed her piano and her guitar and her cello and her drum kit.

Her voice was not wonderful or hypnotic or beautiful, it was with her hands that gave her the greatest musics and whenever she played she could hear Taro in her ear, feel his large hands on top of her small ones, not so small anymore and feel his heart beat in the tempo.

 _"These hands are small I know but they're, not yours they are my own and they're not yours they are my own and I am never broken. In the end, only kindness matters…"_

The door opened and when she looked over her shoulder it was Twice, a pack of cigarettes in one hand. She could see something black poking out of his pocket. His mask?

"Jin!" she smiled cheerfully and waved at him. Tarmac left her and trotted over to sniff at the new comer, who looked a little uncomfortable. His face never stopped being that weird mix between sleepy and mean, but he always stayed still long enough to let River finish talking to him. He'd even let her call him 'Jin' after she botched his name too many times. She'd never felt more American.

"Hey, River," his smile was strained. He looked around, but they were the only ones on the roof top. His hands kept twitching, one towards his pocket. Was he holding back because she was there?

"Come sit with us," she invited. She held up a soda can. "I have squirt."

"Ah, no thanks. We- I mean, I, have to uh, be somewhere else. Now."

She frowned when he fled as soon as he'd come. When the sound of someone crashing down the stairs followed his departure she jumped to her feet and ran for the door. She shoved her head in and looked down to see Jin thrashing on the floor, mask half shoved over his face while he tried to get his feet back under him. He was muttering, one voice much higher than the other.

River looked down at Tarmac, who peered back up at her with his bright yellow eyes.

"Trauma does some shit," she told her cat. "Pretty sure it rewired my entire brain by now."

She could understand Jin too, at least to an extent. She had never disassociated into a totally different persona, but she had been hesitant to use the power she had inherited for a long time after she first got it. She didn't understand it, and it had come to her with the greatest tragedy of her young life. Back then she had shaved her head so short in retrospect she was surprised she hadn't taken skin off with it, all in a vain attempt to get the red out.

She huffed, jumped down the stairs three at a time until she could catch Jin's hand, which had managed to get caught in the guard rail.

"Hold on," she ordered shortly. "Let me help."

"Get off of me! _Thank you_."

"Sure thing," she chose to listen to the higher voice and carefully pulled his hand free. The bars were far enough apart that it could get through with his fall, but once he'd twisted himself around he'd managed to get stuck. As soon as she had his hand free she finally looked at his masked face.

"Oh," she said, "You're crooked." Carefully, she took hold of the corners and tugged the mask sideways, so it lined up properly. She sat before him in the stair well, on her knees in her pink sweat pants with a loose blue shirt hanging half off of her shoulder.

"I didn't need your help! _You're the best_."

"Aren't I?" River smiled brightly at him. It faded a little so she could look better at her neighbor. "I don't uh, know what's going on," she lied, "but you know I'm not really a judgmental person. If you were gonna wear that, I wouldn't have said anything."

She could see his eyes narrow through the mask, which reflected his face better than she was expecting. It was a little like watching Deadpool, only instead of breaking the forth wall he was just her neighbor, talking to her.

" _That's nice of you_. You're really weird."

"Hypocrite," she poked him in the nose. "You still wanna go?"

"No. _I probably should_."

He stood and she didn't stop him, but she did hold her hand out expectantly. He obediently pulled her up and she used the momentum to hop up and kiss his cheek, then the other.

"Have a nice day then," she said, and went back to the rooftop. She could feel him watching her as she went, and wondered idly what she'd gotten herself into.

* * *

Rivers apartment was still pretty barren. She made enough money to pay rent and buy food and that was about it. She didn't have a coffee table, or a tv, or even a dining room table or any chairs. She had a single pillow that sat in the middle of the living room. The couch she had sold to pay for her first months rent when her first pay check, for only a week and a half, hadn't been enough to cover it.

This meant that she could only really sit on her bed. Or, if she wanted, on a barrier perpendicular to the ground. That was what the pillow was for.

River didn't really need to think all that hard to keep her walls up, and at this point power that once been so frightening and foreign came second nature to her. She had to hold back so much at UA, and she had hidden so long when she lived with Carter that in the privacy of her own apartment she adored abusing her powers entirely.

 _Quirk,_ she reminded herself again, _It's a quirk._

How weird, to finally have a name to call it, all these years later.

River stretched herself along the air of her living room, into a yoga pose that stuck her stomach into the air and her head behind her shoulders. It pulled at her muscles in a way that was not entirely pleasant.

She wanted to limber up for the day ahead of her.

She had found that in terms of Hero studies they only did a big exercise twice a week, and smaller ones on the other days. For one day, they studied things like hero laws and histories, with Midnight.

That meant that today was one of the days that they were doing big exercises, and not smaller ones.

She'd been timing them for the last week to try and figure out when the USJ attack was going to happen, but in the end it was hopeless. She was just going to have to wait, like everyone else. The only difference was, she knew what was coming. And she knew how to fight back.


	5. Lunch Rush

River wondered, some days, if anyone suspected her.

Aizawa treated her like any other student, and Nezu hadn't done anything more than say hello to her in the hallway once and give a long lecture on the importance of a hero's name.

Why would they suspect her?

Since she had arrived she had done nothing out of the ordinary.

She was just an exchange student with a job she went to after school. She did her homework in the break room during lunch, and when she got a day off she spent it sleeping and playing with her cat, or singing.

She had gone nowhere further into the darkness than her own crumbling apartment building.

So, why would anyone suspect anything of her?

That didn't stop the creeping paranoia that crawled up her spine every time Aizawa looked at her, or the way her heart started racing whenever she had the passing thought of how much easier things would be if she fell back on her old habits. If she used Taro's training, Gabe's tactics, Jess's ruthless convictions and _justice_ , it would all be so much easier.

She stopped herself from going down that path with the sharp reminder that telepaths might actually exist.

Had they ever existed before?

Had any of her students ever known the truth in the tattoo on her hand, the lace glove that marked her eternally? Had any of them ever known who she was?

No one would ever know, she vowed, who she had been. What she was capable of.

* * *

River hated reporters a lot.

Like, a lot.

She could remember with terrible clarity how fast they had seen the weakness presented when she was young and fresh from rescue and how fast they had jumped at their chance to make a story from what they saw as her suffering. Cockroaches who fed off the scraps of existence that other people held, who ripped apart privacy and ruined relationships and twisted words and truths into a reality that they could profit off of.

Yes, River hated reporters a lot.

As soon as she saw them outside of the school she felt a rush of anger roll through her one behalf of her fellow students and her teacher. She stalked towards the massive school, gripping her book bag like a weapon. At the edges of the masses she came to a pause, for there was a person there that she recognized. Vaguely blue hair tangled out of a dark hood pulled all the way over his ears.

Red eyes flickered over to meet gold and River screwed up her face.

"Excuse me," she said, "I need to get through these glory chasing fuck wits."

Something flashed in his eyes and, to Rivers immense surprise, he slunk a step out of her way. She caught a glimpse of his mouth, partially opened, and on impulse she dug a stick of chapstick out of the side pocket of her bag, now decorated with a little Evee charm Kaminari had given her, and shoved it against Shigaraki's chest. He scrambled, catching it with a grace that impressed River immensely. He held it between two nimble fingers and River had the strangest thought that if he touched her now, it wouldn't stick.

"It's cherry flavored," she said simple, and body checked her way into the mob of press.

If River was being honest, and she so rarely was, she quite liked the League of Villains. Call it a bias, but the Villains had always appealed to her. They wanted to change a society that had been unfair to them. She understood, intimately, the way that could feel.

None did she understand better than Tomura Shigaraki though.

She knew his pain, she knew his anger, she knew how easy it was to be twisted by betrayal and apathy and the emptiness that sucked up those who were unwanted by the rest of the world. They had both been saved by the worst of the worst, but while Taro had taken her hands, soaked in red, and showed her how to use them for more than pain, she doubted very much that All For One had given the same consideration to Tomura. And so they were, as this, enemies.

Despite all that she carved her path out of the reporters and stormed into UA with a vengeance. She was not here for the Villains. She was not here to be the Red River. She was here to be a hero. She was here to redeem herself. She was here for her second chance.

She slammed the door to the classroom open and watched Izuku jump about twenty feet in the air.

"I'm going to kick the next reporter I see in the head," she announced, and took her usual seat.

"They really made you that mad?" Asked Kirishima. River wasn't known for her violence. It was hilarious.

"Yep," she said simply. Then added, "I wanna be a hero like Eraser Head. I don't want that many people breathing down my neck, and they'll all get in my way."

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Aizawa said as he walked in. "Everyone quiet down. We have a lot to go over today. And, you're picking your class Rep."

It was about at that point that River stopped paying real attention. She voted for Iida, and that was that.

When lunch rolled around, she just about trampled Uraraka in her rush to get to the cafeteria in time to stuff her face before the alarms started blaring and everyone lost their goddamn minds.

Each class ate lunch together, so all the first years ate first, second years had their lunch after, and third years got to eat once the place was cleared of younger children. That meant that classes A, B C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and J all ate in the same place.

It also meant that when she grabbed lunch she got enough for two and promptly sat her butt down at a quiet table in the corner next to Shinso, who had been kind enough to get the drinks. He passed her a soda while she gave him a plate load of curry.

"Morning love of my life," she said brightly, and fell into her food like a ravenous animal. Like a Coyote who hadn't eaten in days. Shinso made a face at her atrocious table manners.

"Don't you have food at home?" he asked. River shrugged, still stuffing her face. She really didn't. Most of what she ate was either the cheap food Lunch Rush made, or the free 'snacks' at the restaurant. Once in a while Jin would get in a mood and show up at her door with a half meat pizza to split between the two of them.

It was okay. She'd gone hungry before. This was nothing.

"Sorry," she said finally, sitting up straight. "Anger makes me hungry."

"Who ticked you off?" Shinso arched a brow. River glared out at the window.

"The fame sucking shit mongers outside."

Shinso's mouth fell open an inch or so at her words. A shadow fell across the pair, belonging to none other than Kaminari and Jiro.

"Hey guys," River waved at them, a smile starting to appear.

"So this is where you disappear all the time! In a corner to talk to some other guy? You're breaking my heart, River!" Kaminari dropped his lunch tray next to her and leaned heavily onto the girls shoulder. She gasped and fell against him.

"Kami! No!" she cried, clutching at his sleeve, "This isn't what it looks like! I swear!"

"I know what I've seen! You're putting up walls between us, shutting me out and ending out relationship."

"No! I could never resist your electric personality!"

Shinso watched the go between, River pushing on Kaminari and Kaminari shedding fake tears as their 'relationship' fell apart. The poor boy looked utterly lost. Jiro, used to their antics, rolled her eyes.

"Ignore them," she advised. "They'll get tired of this eventually and start making fun of eachothers hair."

"What?" River sat upright, almost sending Kaminari to the ground. "His hairs cute! I love little black parts," she grabbed Kaminari's bangs and tugged at them. He swatted her hand away.

"They're great right? So, River, who's your friend?" he asked, looking at Shinso for the first time.

"Hitoshi Shinso! He's gonna be in our class soon," she said with absolute certainty. Shinso hunched his shoulders a little, but she could see the pleased smile that started to grow across his face.

"Pleased to meet you," he said politely to Kaminari. The blond leaned forwards, narrowing his pretty gold eyes at Shinso. River loved his eyes. They were a beautiful topaz and they sparked brilliantly when he got passionate about something.

"Oh yeah? You're the kind of guy chicks dig, I can tell," he leaned back finally, nodding to himself. Jiro looked at River, her eyes wide and her smile crooked. River snickered.

Her phone buzzed with two texts.

 **Jiro : Kaminari your bi is showing.**

 **River : Right?**

She tapped out to see the second message.

 **Shadow Bae : Wherever you are, you are one with the clouds and one with the sun and the stars you see. You are one with everything. That is more true than I can say, and more true than you can hear**.

 **River : Calmness of mind does not mean you should stop your activity. Real calmness should be found in activity itself. We say, "It is easy to have calmness in inactivity, it is hard to have calmness in activity, but calmness in activity is true calmness.**

She and Tokoyami had moved on to Suzuki earlier in the morning, and she was finally at someone she didn't have many quotes of memorized. Tokoyami might actually win their little game.

Another text popped up.

 **Boss man : We're short 2nite, want extra hrs? mssg me, it closes.**

 **River : I'll be there!**

Even if the USJ was attacked, she would be over and done with that whole debacle before the closing shift. A four hour pick up from nine to one in the morning. She was going to be so tired tomorrow.

"…So that's why I have to be careful when I'm using my quirk," Kaminari almost smacked River in the face while he was gesturing. "I could electrocute all of my friends."

Shinso's eyes softened ever so slightly. "I get it," he said earnestly, "My quirk… isn't exactly suitable to being a hero."

River didn't know how Shinso could say he wasn't here to make friends, when he drew people to him like a magnet. She could already see Jiro on his side, and Kaminari was getting amped up on his behalf. It was adorable. River grinned, watching the friendship start to blossom.

It was a lovely lunch.

Until the alarm went off.

River didn't even stand up, and when the other three started to freak out she pointed blandly to the window, where Reporters were trying to mob Mic and Aizawa.

"Charge my phone?" she asked Kaminari.

"Yeah, sure," he agreed, zapping it. All four of them were staring out the window while chaos descended around them. River quietly put up a bubble around them. She wanted to hold on to as much peace as she could, before the shit hit the fan that after noon.

"Tomorrow," she said to Shinso, "We should meet up after school and I can teach you how to take a hit."

Shinso levelled his sleepy eyes, for once filled with a light, on her. "That sounds like a threat."

Her smile was sharp. "It might be."


	6. Not So Unforseen

he USJ is an amazing facility. Looking upon it as they drive in the bus, Bakugou screaming in one ear and Kaminari laughing in the other, she has to wonder just how rich her school actually is to be able to afford it. River's leg jumped up and down nervously as she watches the dome approach, knocking her gold visor over and over.

The USJ.

River looked around her at the children that were conglomerated on the bus, hopeful and chasing their dreams. They were about to catch a glimpse of the darkness that lurked beyond their door, the horrors that consumed the world that they had signed up to defend. It was going to be the first real fight most of them had ever been in. River tried to think about what that was like, tried to remember what it was to live in a world like that.

She found she couldn't recall.

A fierceness and a horrible sorrow rose inside of her chest as she watched the bus break into laughter at Bakugou's expense. She wanted to defend them. She wanted to stand in front of them and raise a wall so thick and strong the horrors of the world would never find this class of kind hearted kids.

But she knew she couldn't.

Even if she wanted to, she couldn't stop them from experiencing the unimaginable. With the limits she had set herself she could not do what she wanted to and with the rules she gave herself she couldn't simply mow down every villain that stepped in front of her.

And, the villains were needed, too.

River didn't care much for keeping the plot. The future was already changing just by her being there. What she cared about was that her class needed to get stronger. They needed to learn, fast, that they couldn't hesitate and they couldn't hold back. They weren't going to be afforded that luxury.

She wondered what would happen if she tried to convince anyone of what she knew, and dismissed the idea as soon as it had come. It didn't matter. She was here to live. She was here for her second chance.

The bus came to a stop and her leg stopped bouncing.

"You okay?" Kaminari asked when she stood slowly. She quietly ran over the limits she'd given herself.

"Huh? A little nervous," she scratched the back of her neck awkwardly. Her smile was sheepish. Kaminari clapped her back.

"It'll be fine! And hey, if you ever need rescuing…" he winked at her.

River laughed and kissed his cheek before she bounced off the bus, leaving him dumbstruck behind her. There was something about Kaminari that always managed to make her happy. He was sweet and kind and he cared so much for other people. It was easy to see why he was going to be a hero.

River let her shoulders relax. She trotted alongside the rest of her class so they could get inside and get this whole thing over with. It would be good for them, in the end. This incident would strengthen their resolve and their hearts.

Or that was what she told herself as she stepped in the facility, trying to calm her troubled heart. She had to hold back. She had to be a defense hero. She had to-

Start focusing on what was going on around her already, Christ on a cracker.

"My quirk has been used to save many people, but it could just as easily be used to kill. I have no doubt that many of you have similar abilities."

River's mind flashed to severed limbs and rolling heads. Fear in the eyes of Jess and Gen. Her figners curled into fists. She was no longer the Red River. She was a defense hero.

"In our Superpower society, things seem pretty stable. We have laws and heroes to protect people. But we must ever forget that it only takes one wrong move with an uncontrollable quirk for people to die. During All Might's battle training you experienced that danger that you're quirks can pose to others. Here, you will learn to use your quirks to help others!"

River breathed in and let it out. It was easy to see how people could get swept up in heroes and their charisma and safety. She wanted to relax and let the words fill her with hope and inspiration. Instead, she peered over Thirteen shoulder at the fountain that stood in the center of the USJ.

She could see mountains, cities, smaller domes inside of the large one. No longer a training facility but a prison for those inside. The lights went out. Darkness fell. At the fountain a spot of black appeared and started swirling larger and larger. This was it. It was all on the line.

 _Never say never. Never gonna stop us now…_

River looked away from Tomura Shigaraki and Kurogiri, trying to squash all of her curiosity by distracting herself. She couldn't give in to her urge to march down and start poking a prodding the smoke covered villain and ask the thousands of questions rolling around in her head. She couldn't afford to skip up to Tomura Shigaraki take his hands in hers and find out if his decay would stick to her or not. Yeah, that last one was a bad idea. They were all bad ideas. Her interactions with Jin were a bad idea.

But, the part of her that remembered being Taro's legacy, the part of her that remembered what it had been like before Gabe's REACH wanted to find them and give to them the gift that had been bestowed upon her, time and time again.

A equally large part of her wanted to smack them silly for attacking a bunch of children.

A glance to the side revealed Todoroki, his gaze fixed upon the scene before them. Aizawa preparing to enter combat. Preparing to face off against the first real villains any of them have seen. In the anime he had been cool as an ice cube. Now, standing next to him, she could feel the cold rolling off of him. There was a minute tremor in his hands. He was afraid.

River touched his arm, drawing his miss-matched eyes to her. She smiled at him with all the confidence she had.

"We're gonna be fine," she said with certainty.

"Of course," Todoroki returned his attention to the scene before him. The shaking stopped. River smiled at the boy and looked back at Aizawa. "Is the whole campus under attack?"

"I doubt it," she crossed her arms over her chest, narrowing her eyes. "They said they were here for All Might, didn't they? If he was supposed to be here, they'd probably concentrate their fire power on him. And, it would make more sense to isolate him here with a bunch of kids than let other heroes know what's going on."

"You're probably right," Thirteen said. "Let's go, everyone!"

River joined the others in running for the door, grabbing Midoriya's hand along the way. He was too fixed on watching Aizawa and stumbled after her before catching his feet underneath him and running at her side.

They were almost to the door when a wash of black smoke swirled before them. A pair of luminescent yellow eyes appeared, owl-like in the darkness. There was no true malice in them, though. River stopped short, confusion touching her heart. No malice. If there was no malice, why was Kurogiri here?

"It's a pleasure to meet you," he said, his formal voice washing over the children in a wave that petrified all but the most steadfast, and River herself. "We are the League of Villains. I know it's impolite, but we decided to invite ourselves into this haven of justice to say hello. And besides, isn't this a fitting place for All Might, the symbol of peace to take his last breath. I believe he was supposed to be here today and yet I see no sign of him. Was the schedule revised without us knowing? Ah well, my role is still the same."

River lifted her fingers, preparing the point at the ground before Kirishima and Bakugou burst past her, an explosion waving her hair.

"Hey!" she shouted, "Get back here, assholes!"

"Did you think we were just going to stand around and let you tear this place to shreds?" Kirishima didn't even seem to hear her as he threw himself at the warp villain, arms jagged with his quirk activated.

"You two, get out of the way right now!" Thirteen screamed as he threw his arms up, finger holes closed with the students still in the way. River cursed softly and slammed up walls around everyone she could see as the darkness flooded her vision. As soon as she couldn't see anyone anymore she stopped making them, unwilling to risk chopping someone's arm off if they moved after she lost sight of them. She managed to get herself, Uraraka, Iida, Todoroki, and Hagakure before the shadows swamped them. Cold washed over her.

The darkness faded and she found herself standing in a city. Water drenched her in second, sticking her hair to her skull. Wind whipped around her ears and her heart dropped into her stomach.

 _Another weakness? Fuck me._

So she couldn't stop sound attacks. She couldn't stop Kurogiri's warp gates. Why? Was it because they weren't physical? Had she just not put up the barriers in time? If she had made a whole cube instead of leaving the ground open, would that have stopped the warp gate?

"River."

She looked to the side and found Tokoyami standing beside her. Great. A witness. Why couldn't she be alone for this?

"Hey," she waved. "How ya doin?"

"Things have been better," he said. A villain came tearing around the corner, so generic River didn't even both with him. Tokoyami slammed him away with Dark Shadow.

"Yeah?" she smiled at him. Paused and looked at Dark Shadow. His eyes were glowing more fiercely. The edges around him were more ragged. His claws seemed sharper. "Uh, bae, what up with other bae?" she asked, nodding towards Dark Shadow. As if she didn't already know.

More enemies came from the sky but found themselves smacking face first into a wall they couldn't see when River lifted her hand and placed her palm flat on the air above her head.

"Dark Shadow grows stronger in the darkness, but more violent and difficult to control as well. In the light he is more docile, but weaker," he explained. He stood next to her, Dark Shadow hovering before the pair of them defensively.

"Huh. Neat," she said off handedly. "I just learned that my walls don't stop teleporters."

"I noticed that as well," Tokoyami said dryly.

River stretched her arm over her chest. Her heart beat harder and her mind worked faster. With her limits, how could she win with witnesses? This would be _so much easier_ if she was alone.

"I can run defense if you'll take offense, but it might be a little janky," she warned.

"That suites me fine," Tokoyami assured. "We need to get back to the others quickly. Not all of our classmates are suited for combat."

"Right," River nodded once and turned to face forwards.

She let Tokoyami step in front of her, taking the lead, and between the two of them they were in and out of the hurricane zone in minutes. The anime did not do justice to the raw power of Tokoyami's Dark Shadow. In the dim light of the rain swept training grounds he was the stuff of nightmare, tearing through their attackers with a ferocity that would have frightened River, if she didn't think it was so fucking cool.

With her throwing up small walls so he didn't have to bother with defense or watch their backs the pair cut a swath through the swarm of gnats that came at them every few steps. River stared down at the last few grunts that were laying on the ground, knocked out by Dark Shadow.

"Where did they get these guys?" she mumbled. A bunch of half trained children could take them out. River hadn't even thrown a punch. She just kept them all at bay. They had quirks, each and every one of these villains, but none of them had managed to so much as scratch the pair.

To be fair, that was mostly Rivers doing. But still. It was shameful.

 _Anne would shoot them all dead if she had to suffer their weakness. How can Tomura stand them?_

River shoved the door open and stepped out into warm air once more. Between the cold of the hurricane zone and the outside heat she had to take her visor off when it started steaming up, leaving her in just the black and gold suit. As soon as they stepped outside Dark Shadow shrunk down and calmed down. River touched his shoulder.

He was solid, cool to the touch and smooth as silk.

"You okay buddy?"

Yellow turned to her and the shade nodded once before giving her a thumbs up, his eyes curving with a smile. She looked to Tokoyami, who nodded as well.

"We're both fine. But we should get back to the plaza."

River nodded. Then stopped, her brows furrowing.

"Maybe. Aizawa and Thirteen are both there though. Like you said, not all of our classmates are suited for fighting. Should we go find them instead?"

Tokoyami considered it for a moment, his head bowing. He looked back at her.

"I will go search for our classmates. I can do offense and defense sufficiently with Dark Shadow. You specialize in defense though, you should return to the others at the door, in case anyone gets past the teachers. Most likely our enemies have their strongest fighters there to focus on All Might."

River smiled and tossed her arm around Tokoyami in a quick hug.

"I'll head that way then. Be careful, yeah?"

Tokoyami nodded shortly and let River go. She ran off, beating tracks. It wasn't hard to get to the plaza, the hurricane zone was one of the closest to the front door. It only took River a few minutes to reach the plaza. She was still a little out of practice at the physical stuff, and she wound up out of breath by the time she got there.

It was her instincts that had her jumping up, onto a platform of her own creation as the ground beneath her split and a man with a crocodiles face tried to stab her from bellow. He smashed face first into solid air. Rive dropped, kicking his nose in hard. She grabbed his knife, sliced it through his shoulder and jumped away to leave him to bleed in the hole he had dug himself. A trap.

Where there more?

She cast her senses out, listening to the sound of Aizawa clashing with the villains around him. He really was amazing. He was fast, strong, flexible and smart. He was the perfect fighter.

Rivers fingers itched to curl into fists and jump into the fray. She really wanted to fight Aizawa some day. All out, no holds, fuck the quirks. Her heart beat faster and heat rushed through her. Yes. Aizawa, was so cool. Courageous-

Caught by Tomura.

She grimaced when she saw his arm start to disintegrate. It was nasty in real life. Nomu, too, was getting closer. In the water, three heads popped up. At least that was the same.

River bit her lip. Did she- did she stop Nomu? She could, but would that be too much? Too much action for a novice, too much 'bravery' for a child? Too much strength for a student?

 _You're supposed to be a defense hero but- but I can't go all out. I wouldn't need to to stop Nomu, but even if I don't it'll all be fine. Right? Iida's going for help. All Might's on the way. Midoriya is here, in the water. Aizawa will be fine. Right?_

 _Right?_

Aizawa twisted between two grunts, knocking them apart, and came to a stop. Even from where she stood River could see him breathing hard. Sweat was trying to stick his hair down even when his quirk was inactive. His shoulders heaved with his breaths and his arm- Shit, that looked bad.

Aizawa looked her way and caught her eye for just an instant. That instant was all it took to distract him long enough for Nomu to grab him. The massive monster, its eyes so blank, grabbed Aizawa by the head and smashed him straight into the ground. Concrete cracked under the force of his skull and his body spasmed, trying to catch himself but it wasn't working. He was caught.

Nomu lifted his head, letting his broke, blood stained goggles fall to the ground underneath him. He managed to twist, his hair flying and his eyes going red but it did no good.

Nomu smashed him into the ground again. And again. And again.

River just stood there, watching, frozen with her own indecision. She couldn't draw attention to herself. She couldn't save Aizawa. She could. She should. She didn't. Why wasn't she moving?

 _He'll be fine. He'll be fine. Where's All Might? Why isn't anyone doing anything?_

Why wasn't she doing anything?

If she put up the barriers now she would have to cut off Nomu's arm. It would grow back, but she wasn't supposed to know that. That was too brutal for a teenager, too brutal for a hero. If she put up a box around Aizawa she could take off Nomu's arm and parts of his legs. If she made a hundred tiny barrieirs that cut off Nomu's skin Aizawa's head would be free but it wouldn't do any good. If she went over there and stabbed him in the eye she could distract him. No matter how much he hit her she wouldn't die.

 _Hawk eyes bore into her own, gold steadily over taking nature along side tears. Blood soaks into her skin, her clothes, her hair. His smile it red, red, red. "The only thing that will hurt you now for long, little girl, is someone you love and someone who loves you in return. That's why-"_

Aizawa's arm crunched when it was crushed in one massive hand.

Taro's voice cleared from her brain and River took one step, then another.

A grunt came from the side and she stepped back without even looking, dodging the blade that made up his hand and punching him in the throat. She didn't have to think about that. She just did. The grunt collapsed with a groan and River took one step. Then another.

Kurogiri appeared next to Tomura.

Nomu lifted Aizawa's head again.

River ran.

She hit Nomu full force, leaping into the air and driving her fingers into his eyes. Blood exploded around her fingers. He dropped Aizawa and reached for her. She planted her fingers on the opposite side of a wall from his, stopping him from touching her. She flipped over his arm and landed on another barrier. She was using them too easily, too much, but-

A massive fist crashed into her side. Her ribs gave way, crunching into her lungs and organs. She choked, blood exploding from her mouth as she was sent flying. She skipping around the ground, rolling to a stop less than a foot away from Tomura. Her ears rang. Air didn't come into her lungs no matter how much she sputtered and gagged.

Her head rolled to the side in time to see Tomura touch Tsu's face.

It started to crumbled away.

River gurgled on a scream and lashed out, punching him in the side. It was weak, barely enough to crack his ribs. Shock shut off the pain from her collapsed rib cage. Blood poured out of her mouth and nose. Her gold eyes locked on his red. He removed his hand from Tsu to grab River's throat.

Izuku lifted out of the water behind him, his arm sparking an effervescent green. He lifted like an angel from above, only to run into a demon that appeared so fast she _didn't even see him move_.

Tomura's fingers stopped a few inches away from her, his face turned away to the Nomu that had protected him. Wind fluttered around them from the force of Izuku's punch.

River sucked in a sudden breath full of air. Her lungs finally fixed themselves. She spat out her mouthful of blood. All she could taste was copper, all she could smell was blood.

"Oh, a healing factor?" Tomura looked back at her, somehow bored and manic at the exact same time.

"Yeah," she breathed. She flipped him off and pushed herself up on one arm. She caught the wrist of the hand he tried to use to grab her face. Her body was shaking. Her ears rang. She bared bloody teeth at Tomura and shoved herself forwards, tackling him into the water.

He beat against her back, grabbed her arm. He took the punch she slammed in his guts. The water swirled red around them, her blood still flowing even as her ribs started to piece themselves back together. Moving wasn't helping, but she didn't stop.

Darkness came around them and they were spat out into open air.

River hit the ground. Her head smacked her on the concrete and her vision hazed.

A booming voice echoed through the facility. All Might had arrived.

River bubbled water and blood and she laughed.


	7. Too Later to Apologize

**OH MY GOD I posted chapter 8 as chapter seven then tried to replace seven with the real seven and put up eight but I ended up posting chapter eight twice. Why does this happen to me.**

* * *

For the rest of the day River goes through the motions. She pretends she doesn't know why All Might isn't going after Tomura and Kurogiri, she assures everyone around her that yes, she's fine, she has more than one quirk and sits through Recovery Girls inspection. She rides the bus silently back to school and listens with half and ear to whatever the little mouse thing is saying. When she's finally freed she goes to work, cleaning up and switching to her uniform and arriving for the closing shift right on time.

Her boss looks at her funny, scolds her for her wet hair but lets her clock in and get to work.

It passes in a haze of rehearsed pleasantries and false smiles. The food trays feel heavier than normal. The stares of the people around her make her itch. She says nothing when she clocks out and leave. She doesn't really sleep that night and the following morning dawns in a grey haze. 1-A has been let out for a few days to recover.

She makes it through the night and into the next morning, when she dresses herself in plain jeans and a plain blue t shirt and exits her apartment.

She takes three steps and the door next to her opens, revealing Jin holding a bottle of gin. She pauses, paints a smile on her face.

"A little early for drinking, don't you think?"

Jin looks at her, more tired than mean that morning. Under that mean look she knows he's not really an awful person. He's just a little lost, just a little out cast.

"You look like you could use a drink," he says. She can't quite manage a laugh.

"Sorry. I got in a fight yesterday. I think I lost," she confesses. She clears her dry throat. "I need to go to the hospital now. See you later," she manages another forced, phantom smile and flees, leaving Jin looking after her. His mouth is open but no words come out.

River jogs out her apartment and into the dimly lit morning. Clouds curl around the sun, forming an unpleasant veil over it. The clouds seemed to hold the entire city captive. River couldn't think of a better day to go to the hospital.

Things are very different here. All she really has to do was ask politely for Shota Aizawa's room, say she was his student and a nurse in snoopy scrubs lead her down the hallway. Her hands start to shake the closer she gets. She passes a skeletal looking man who she ignores firmly. She has enough to think about now.

The door opens and River is given a glimpse of the man on the hospital bed.

River walks over slowly. The steady beating of the EKG is a hollow comfort to the girl. She has seen many dead people. She has put many people in the hospital. Not often does the sight of someone hurt squeeze her heart so hard.

Aizawa's chest rises and falls with his shallow breaths. It's not his ribs that were broken though. It was his arms, it was his face. His eyes, his quirk, his vision. That's what was at risk. That's what she didn't stop from being damaged.

 _"In this world it's the people who see cruelty, who witness pain, who have the knowledge and the ability to bring it to a halt and do nothing that are-_

"-The absolute worst," she murmurs. Tears prick her eyes. Her fingers curl into the sheets that covered Aizawa's torso and she bows her head, choking quietly. He didn't need to be here. She could have stopped his pain. She could have helped. But all she did was stand there, doing nothing. She what she knew was going to happen play out. Why? Why? Because someone else would help.

So why should she?

The sheets dot with wet spots. Her cheeks damped.

"I'm sorry," she breathes, sinking to her knees. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

It was her fault. All of it. If she spoke up- if she acted- if she didn't hold herself at bay-

Smoke flutters through the room and massive arms wrap around her shoulders, pulling River into a broad chest. She doesn't have to look to know who it is.

"All Might…?"

"Hush now, young River. It's not your fault," he murmurs. His voice rumbles through his chest. A large hand pets her hair gently. She had no idea someone so strong could handle another person with such care. A few more tears leak from her eyes and she leans into the embrace, even when she doesn't think she actually deserves the comfort.

"I could have stopped it," she mumbled. "I should have. I saw it happening and I did nothing. How can I say I deserve to be a hero?"

"Listen to me now," he orders, his soft voice stern, "It was not your fault what happened, no one blames you and you couldn't have prevented what occurred yesterday. Even if you don't believe me, think of this as a chance to learn and grow. Aizawa protected you so in the future you will have the chance to protect others."

River choked softly. He didn't understand. He didn't understand she was _right there_. She has been fighting for longer than Aizawa has been alive. She should have done something but she was too caught up in her own mind, in her own limitations. He had paid the price for her own indecision.

"It'll be alright," All Might shushes her softly, holding the girl to him. "I am here, River."

River squeezes her eyes shut and holds onto All Might, letting the warmth of the hero wrap around her. Her stomach hurts. Her ribs are too tight. They aren't broken anymore but it hurts and the guilt makes her sick. Somehow, though, All Might manages to ease the weight on her shoulders. She doesn't understand how he can do it just by being there. Nonetheless she's grateful.

Finally, she pulls away and scrubs her yellow eyes, now rimmed red, with the heels of her palms.

"Sorry. You've probably got more important things to do than deal with my midlife crisis," she mumbles, refusing to look him in the eye.

"Nonesense," he lays a massive hand on her head. "You're one of my students. I always have time for you."

Her ribs tighten again.

"You're… the real deal, aren't you?" she asks, finally looking up at him. She searches his blue eyes, normally hidden in shadow. They are electric and warm, soft as they gaze upon her. "You really are just this nice. Jesus."

"I wouldn't go that far," he smiles at her, a lopsided one that's so much more real than what she's seen when he teaches. It means more to her too.

River almost laughs.

"Thank you," she says quietly. She looks back at the bed, back at Aizawa. Her eyes darken but it doesn't hurt quite so much. All Might doesn't understand, but he's not wrong. Aizawa knew what he was doing. He made the choice to defend them. "Would it be okay, do you think, if I stayed for a little while?"

"I doubt he would mind," All Might finally lets go of her. "Though he might not show how much it means to him."

River manages to smile for real up at All Might. "You're pretty good at showing up when I need you, Teach. Thanks."

"It's my duty as a hero!" All Might beams down at her. "And as your teacher. Don't forget, my office is always open to you."

"Yeah," River smiles as him again. "Thank you."

All Might leaves her alone with Aizawa again and she pulls up a chair. Between the steady sound of his heart beat and the exhaustion that creeps in after crying she manages to doze for a few hours. She dreams.

* * *

 _Her legs don't swing under the high bar stool but she knows that they could. The weight of her winnings is heavy in the pocket of her torn up jeans, missing on leg entirely from the knee down. She can't remember anymore how it got that way. There's nothing on her feet but scars. No one that went into the Pit wore shoes. It was a rule. No shoes, no gloves, no guards._

 _Pepper puts a bottle of water, sealed, in front of her. There's two seats between her and every patron that just watched what she did. She picks some of the blood out from under her nails with a toothpick._

 _A shadow falls over her badly chopped hair. She'd taken as much of it off with a pair of scissors a while ago. She looks up and all she sees is red._

 _A dark red coat so long it almost touches the floor. Bright red hair that defies gravity in all her laws and crimson painted lips. She knows it's lipstick. She knows what blood looks like._

 _She wipes some off of her mouth and meet's hawk eyes, gold set above a sharp nose that's been broken a few times. They're alight with battlefire. This is someone who likes to fight. Someone who likes to hurt._

 _"Saw what you did in there," his voice is rough, like he's been screaming. There's headphones around his neck that blast music that does the screaming for him. "There's easier ways for a little girl to make money."_

 _They both know what he means. Men are disgusting, but she's so young and small and she could profit off of it. People have offered before. Some of them didn't like no. Those ones got her fist in their dick instead of what they actually wanted._

 _Her shoulders draw together, ready to do the same to this one. He shifts his hips, a strap shows up under his open coat. A gun._

 _He's not holding it yet, so she doesn't care._

 _"I know," she says finally._

 _"Mr. Taro," Pepper hands him a glass of.. something. Mixed and fruity. She eyes the strawberry cut into the glass and wants to kiss and kill Pepper at the same time. He warned her that she was talking to Quentin Taro, who owned this whole side of town and was known for his mean temper and his reputation as a hitter. Everyone knew his name. She was probably the only one who didn't know his face, by the fact no one had called him a faggot for his pussy drink._

 _The only person in the city who Taro listened to was Anne 'Black Lace' Reed, and her brother Jazz. The Reeds controlled the whole underground. From the pier, to the north end, to this east quarter underground scene that sat beneath Joe's Dinner._

 _She had already met his eyes. If rumors were true and that was enough to get her gutted then she was already dead. She looks straight into his eyes and feels minuscule. Tiny. He can see right through her skin, to her bones and their cracks and the scars that run as deep as her marrow._

 _"You'd hurt a lot less, that way," Taro tells her, eying the bruise growing on her wrist speculatively._

 _"No I won't," she says, because it's true. Pepper clears his throat pointedly. Trying to look out for her. She looks right into the hawk eyes and sees them narrow at her. She had heard someone say that Taro had eyes like the devil. She disagreed._

 _She had seen the devil's eyes before. These weren't it._

 _"Stay after closing," he says, and she knows she's going to die. He takes a step and stops, squints down at her. "What's your name?"_

 _Someone finally hauls Ajax, who's blood still stained her shirt, out the side door in a black garbage bag. He was the second for Molly, who sits in a corner and sucks back two more shots through a straw. Her arms are both broken._

 _She looks back into the eyes of the third most dangerous person in her world._

 _"River Kelly."_

* * *

When she finally leaves the hospital she is still weighted down with her inaction but her presence is more cemented. She has not thought of the day Taro found her in many years, and it makes her smile, if only a little. A reminder of what human's nature truly is.

No sooner has she stepped out the door than her phone buzzes.

 **Zombae: I heard about yesterday are you okay?**

 **River: A little shaken up bit I be fine.**

 **River: *but**

 **River: Do you still want to get together? We can use the school gym I bet.**

 **Zombae: I'll meet you there.**

River smiles to herself and stows her phone. She is in slightly better spirits as she makes her way across town to the school. Shinso, and everyone else who wasn't in class 1-A still had to go to class that day. They didn't get as traumatized as the rest of them.

She gets there just as classes let out and has time to change into her gym clothes before she meets with Shinso in the main gymnasium. They aren't the only ones there, but most people are upper classmen. She's even pretty sure she sees a familiar blond head off in one corner doing warm up exercises.

Shinso stands awkwardly in the corner, waiting for her.

He doesn't say anything when she opens their conversation with a hug, squeezing him a little too tight for a little too long.

He clears his throat awkwardly.

"Are you sure you're up for this?" he asks.

River smiles and shrugs.

"Fighting's easy. Come on, we're gonna need some of the mats," she links her arm with his and drags him over. The gym is made mostly of training equipment, but a good size chunk of it is covered in soft mats that are shaped like puzzle pieces. It's those that she pulls Shinso towards.

"That sounds ominious," he mumbles.

"It should," she grins at him, yellow eyes shining. "Okay. So, when you're hit in the shoulders or the face you wanna go with it. If you go with the punch, it'll do less damage. Especially to the head. The opposite is true for body shots. Those you wanna tighten your muscles and breath out hard," she takes a few steps away from him. It's weird for her to say aloud the things she learned on her own, through pain and experience. "Now hit me."

Shinso pauses, squints at her.

"Are you sure?" he asks. River rolls her eyes and flicks her fingers at him. Shinso shrugs and punches her straight in the face. She lets her head snap to the side, taking the impact.

She turns back and punches him in the side of his face. He stumbles, falling to the ground. River stands over him, hand extended. He takes it and they go like that. He punches her and she punches him where he punched her first. Every few minutes she reminds him to flow with it or brace. Watch her hands. Watch her elbows. Don't rely on her eyes to tell him where she's gonna hit.

When he's sufficiently bruised and out of breath River cracks her neck from side to side.

"Let's take a few laps," she suggests. He stares at her like she's out of her mind. River pokes his shoulder. "Come on. You can't rely on your quirk forever. You've gotta get stronger. It won't be fun, but there it is. You have a dream to follow, don't you?"

River watches the light brighten in his eyes. Shinso's mouth thins into a determined line and he nods sharply. He falls into step with her as she starts running. He struggles, a lot.

This is going to take some work.

By the time they get back to the mats Shinso looks ready to keel over but he stays on his feet through sheer force of will. River would be lying to say she isn't impressed.

She moves on in his lessons. Showing him how to throw a punch. Arm bent, thumb on the outside, power comes from the shoulder. Don't wind up, it looks cool but it makes you weak.

Shinso is sweating profusely by the time River finally feels like they've covered enough for one day.

His dark eyes stay focused on her, the circles underneath them more pronounced than ever.

"You're not even breathing hard," he accuses, scowling.

"So you see, how long you have to go?"

He nods shortly. Shinso sways on his feet. River moves to catch him, slipping her arm around his middle. His head falls on her shoulder and he lets River support him on the way back to the locker rooms. She lets him go to change.

They meet back up and he walks her to the train station. For once she doesn't fill the silence with idle chatter, and perhaps that is why he keeps looking at her, his dark eyes filled with concern.

River pauses at the train. Considers spilling her guts.

She hugs him instead, holding on for a long time before she separates and boards her train.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" she offered.

"Yeah. Be safe, okay?"

River flashes him the peace sign. The train doors slam shut in front of her, cutting the pair off.


	8. A Surprising Torque to Size Ratio

When River took her normal seat during class the next day she was aware of eyes on her.

She tried to focus on Aizawa's speech about the sports festival, but it was hard when someone was staring holes into the side of her head. It even harder when every time she looked Aizawa in the eye it felt like she'd been punched in the stomach.

Why was it so hard? She'd done so many worse things than just letting someone get beat up. She'd sliced people into tiny little pieces. She'd taken people apart one chunk at a time. She'd threatened and tormented and killed.

She didn't feel nearly as bad about all that as she did about letting Aizawa get hurt. Tsu, with the five finger print scars around her face, she couldn't even look at.

 _Exactly how fucked up is that?_

If she thought about it too much, River was pretty sure she belonged more with villains than heroes. But, she wasn't thinking of that. She was here to be a defense hero.

 _So next time,_ defend _._

She managed to take a few notes when Cementoss came in for modern lit, but besides that she passes most of the day trying not to look over her shoulder at whoever was staring at her. It was getting a little bit annoying, if she was honest. Just what had she done to warrant someone staring at her?

The bell for lunch rang and everyone stood up, River included.

Aizawa looked at her. "Quentin, stay a minute," he ordered.

She cringed. Oh god. What was this about?

She put her book back on her desk, ignoring the sympathetic look from Kaminari and Jiro and waited for the rest of the class to file out. She was left alone with Aizawa, who narrowed his dark eyes at her through the holes in the bandages that made up most of his whole body at this point.

"Uh, hi," she waved awkwardly. Aizawa stared at her for a few more seconds before he sighed.

"Don't go apologizing to me again," he ordered shortly. Her breath caught. He'd been awake?! "You should have stayed still the whole time, not jumped in and attacked the Nomu. That was stupid and reckless."

"I have a-"

"Healing factor. I heard. That wasn't registered with the rest of your quirk," his dark eyes narrowed at her. He didn't sound angry, just… tired.

She winced. Damn it, Michael. Really?

"Oh."

"Either way, you should have stayed where you were and let the pros handle things. You could have been in a lot of trouble. Next time, be more careful," he warned. His eyes softened, ever so slightly and so quickly was it gone River wondered if she'd imagined it. Then, he pulled his sleeping bag up to his shoulders and laid on the ground.

River stared at him a couple more second before she left the room, more confused than ever before.

He wasn't mad at her? She let him get hurt and he wasn't mad? He would have rather she did nothing at all? What the hell was with this society?

River left the room, puzzled, and made her way to the cafeteria so she could get something descent to eat. All that was left in her apartment was some cucumbers, honey, and a fuck ton of cat food. Tarmac ate better than she did some days. Most days. Her job did not pay well but few people were willing to hire a foreigner and even fewer one that was a student, one at UA or otherwise. American's had a certain…. Reputation, that she was being forced to pay for.

River got all the way to her normal table in the corner, where Shinso was strangely absent from, when she finally looked up and caught Todoroki staring at her from across the room. She paused, cocked her head and smiled. She waved at him.

Slowly, he walked over. She wasn't sure what to think of the look on his face. It wasn't impassive the way anime depicted it. He looked… conflicted. His brows were ever so slightly furrowed. His mouth twitched downwards at the corners.

"Hey, what's shakin'?" she asked, scooting over to give him room to sit. Todoroki didn't, instead standing over her for a few minutes before he finally sat across from her. His mis-matched eyes, so pretty, were troubled.

"River," he began, and she had to wonder if any of them knew that that was her first name, "I wanted to apologize."

"…huh?" she stared at him blankly.

"When we were at the USJ, I arrived too late to help you. And I saw you on the ground I- I couldn't do anything when Tomura Shigaraki reached for your neck. It was Midoriya who attacked him. Even though I was right there I was… frozen."

River choked. "Was that a pun?"

Todoroki did not share her smile, so she let it drop. Her eyes softened.

"Honey, listen," she scratched her neck awkwardly, "it was your first time seeing someone as messed up as I was, wasn't it?" she waited for him to nod, "then it's not a surprise. We all start somewhere. No one died, so don't go worrying about it. You got your feet wet and now we can move on."

Was this how Aizawa felt about her?

River proped her chin in her fist and reached across the table with her other hand to take Todoroki's left hand in hers. It was warm, less calloused than her own. She squeezed it and watched the surprise flicker across his face.

"I'm fine. And, you helped All Might with the bird fucker. So I'd say you did pretty amazing, Todoroki," she smiled sweetly at him. Watched red crawl across his neck. He gripped her hand and stiffened.

"You can't say that when you punched him in the face," Todoroki argued. She didn't fight when he pulled his hand away from hers.

"I did not punch him in the face," she argued. Shinso finally arrived, sitting in the empty space she left beside him. "I gauged his eyes out. Not the same thing."

Todoroki grimaced minutely while Shinso looked between the pair, a brow raised in curiosity.

Kaminari plopped next to her, followed by Jiro and Tokoyami.

River was amassing quite the fan base.

* * *

The room is filled with smoke and dimly lit. The incense make his head light and fill his lungs, cold in contrast to the heat that emanates from the fire that burns violet in the center of the room. It flickers in a silver goblet decorated with weird symbols.

He doesn't know what they mean. He doesn't care. All he cares about is Heather Aster, standing across the room from him. She's dressed professionally, in a tailored pant suit that doesn't match her purple faux-hawk even a little bit. All of her focus is on a book propped on a stand in front of her.

"You're sure this is what you want?" she asks again. Someone shifts behind him. Serenity, he bets. She's brutal and cruel.

"If it wasn't, we would be here, now would we?" she snaps. The air around them ripples.

Heather Aster doesn't so much as blink. She turns the page.

"I can give you one power and one only. How you use them and how strong they are is up to you. Understand?"

She finally lifts her head to stare straight at them.

Ray Kennedy squares his shoulders and lifts his chin. He narrows his eyes at her.

"I understand. We'll only get one shot at this, won't we? Once she knows we're there…. She'll kill us all."

 _Blood, blood, seeping into the carpet. Splattered on the wall, dripping down the family portrait over the mantle piece._

"And now nursing school will be able to help you," Heather Aster agrees, shooting him a pointed look. "This is your last chance to back out. There's no coming back after this. You'll never see anyone in this world again. Are you sure, you're willing to give up everything you have to get revenge?"

Ray doesn't waver. He doesn't look away. There's something in her eyes that tells him if he even blinks it'll all be gone. His chance. Their chance.

His hands shake. He is afraid. His is angry. He has to do this. For _them_.

"We are," his voice is blessedly steady.

Heather Aster looks back at the book. She snaps her finger and the fire leaps, twisting out of the goblet and consumes them. He can hear Serenity scream. He can hear Takashi yell. He closes his eyes against the wave of violet that spins around him and the world vanishes out from under his feet.

All there is is white, white light behind his eyelids. Then, silence.

They fall.

* * *

River stands in the doorway next to Izuku, bad tossed over her shoulder, staring out at the ground that has gathered outside of it, waiting for someone to walk out.

"Why the heck are you all here?" Uraraka yells, waving her hands. She's less intense than she was this morning, which was a bit of a shame. The fire in her eyes had been kind of awe inspiring.

"Do you students have some sort of business with our class?" Iida questions, coming to stand on River's right.

"They're scouting out the competition, idiots." Bakugo saunters up to the door, his red eyes cast across the small pond of high schoolers spread out before him. "We're the class that survived a real villain attack. They want to see us with their own eyes."

"Please don't explode anybody…" Midoriya begs quietly. River cocks her head, a thought passing through her mind. Could she still block Bakugou? Probably.

"At least now you know what a future Pro looks like. Now move it, extras." The anime's did not do justice to how much of a dick he was. Still, he was kinda cool. In the overconfident asshole kind of way. River made a mental note to punch him in the sports festival.

"You can't walk around calling people extras just because you don't know who they are!" Iida shouts at Bakugou's back, but hardly listening.

"So this is the rest of class 1A?" The voice is familiar and River straightens up, catching sight of her Zombae poking his way through the crowd. "I heard you guys were impressive, but you just sounds like an ass. You took second in the tests and you're this delusional? How sad to come here and find an egomaniac. I wanted to be in the Hero Course, but like many others here I was forced to choose a different track. Such is life," the dismissive words are betrayed by the shadow on his face. River's heart aches for him. "I didn't cut it the first time around, but I have another chance. If any of us do well in the Sports Festival, the teachers can decide to transfer us to the Hero Course. And they'll have to transfer people out to make room. Scouting out the competition? Maybe some of my peers are, but I'm here to let you know that if you don't bring your very best I'll steal your spot right from under you. Consider this a declaration of war."

River can't stop the smile that spreads across her face. She passed Uraraka and Bakugou both to hold up her fist for her friend, who stares at her without wavering.

"Bring it."

The almost smile that graces his face is reflected by the spark of competition that glows in his eyes. He taps his knuckles to hers.

River passes him by on her way out the door, ignoring Tetsutetsu. She cranes her head around, looking for a head of spiky hair. She catches Bakugou just as he's getting ready to turn the corner and makes a break for it, running past the other classes in order to catch up to him.

He doesn't punch her when she loops there arms together, with is personally surprising.

"What do you want, Curly Top?" he growls, glaring at her.

"I wanna fight you," she says frankly. He jerks a little straighter, his eyes sharpening with interest. "One on one. No Izuku, no Jiro, no play warheads. Just you and me, _firecracker_."

"Tch. You think you can take me when you didn't even put a top on your little box?" he snaps. He still doesn't pull his arm away, and its not an outright no. River starts to smile wider.

"It would have been boring if you were stuck in there for the whole time, don't you think?" she says lightly. His eyes get wider, realization dawning. River tries not to grin wider. He had no idea she did that on purpose. He thought she really was foolish enough not to close off all exists. It's exactly what she wanted, but now she knows she has to step up her game a little.

She pulls away, spinning on her heel.

"Let's ask to use the practice ground this Saturday!" she blows him a kiss again, watches his face turn red as his eyes, and bounces off laughing. He's really too much fun to tease.

She checks her phone when she gets to her locker, kicking her shoes into it roughly.

 **Shadow Bae: 'Never ascribe to malice what can be equally explained by stupidity.'**

River laughs. They'd broadened the criteria for, instead of one person, a category.

 **River: '** **The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.'**

She scrolls down her phone, checking for any new notifications. Any new job offers or emails. There is, predictably, nothing. It's hard to get worthwhile mail when you were a ghost.

She jogs out of the school and makes her way home. The train is stopped by a supervillain, and so she gets off a station early to walk the rest of the way. It's not that long of a walk, and he obnoxious sneakers are comfortable. She pauses a few blocks from her apartment building, eying a mockery of Starbucks speculatively. She really shouldn't. She doesn't have that much money, even with the overtime she worked the other day. If she wants coffee that badly she'll buy the instant shit from the supermarket but…

She pushes the door open, breathing in the scent of coffee beans, chocolates, and machinery. She needed something besides the shit in her apartment. Just- something.

She walks up to the counter, aware of another person entering after her. The reflection in the glass reveals a young man in a hoodie, the hood pulled all the way up. She intentionally keeps her shoulders lax and faces forwards. She smiled politely at the barista, says her pleases and thank you's and gets the cheapest latte she can. And, a gift card for 600 yen.

She passes over her card, waits to input the pin number, and turns around to face Tomura Shigaraki.

She flips the little gift card out towards him. Meets red with yellow. An adder and a coyote. She waits until he takes the card, confusion crossing his face and she smiles. She pulls her hands back but Tomura grabs one of them, his pinkie raised carefully. She blinks a couple of times.

"Um," she says.

"I don't need you money," he tells her, defensive and bewildered. River wants to pat his head and tell him the world isn't all bad. River wants to punch him in the balls and tell him if he ever comes near her class again she'll cut him into cubes of meat. But, she's trying to pull away from the life time she spent chopping other people up. So, instead, she tugs her hand out of his, minding the last finger and pretends she doesn't recognize him at all.

"Pay it forwards," she says, and turns to take her coffee. He doesn't stop her, but in the window she can see him scratch at his neck and she knows that he watches her even as she leaves.

It's easier than she expect to ditch him, the feeling of being followed subsiding soon after she exits the building. Her spacial awareness isn't what it was at the height of her career as the Red River, but she's not so rusty she doesn't know when she's being tailed.

She really needs to start building herself up. The USJ was proof of that. She should have been able to take Tomura down with one hand behind her back. She should have broken half the bones in his body in the time it took her to crack one.

She had gone soft and complacent in her time as a professor. And she had the gal and hypocrisy to think about teaching the rest of 1-A not to hold back or hesitate, when she had done both.

Taro, and Gabe, too, would be so disappointed.

Carter wouldn't have been able to strike the match that killed her without her knowing before. But, domestication had shorn her claws and dulled her teeth. River grimaced and walked up the steps to her building, vanishing inside. She sipper her coffee, savoring the warmth that rushed through her body. Sometimes even the smallest things could make a girl feel a little more human.

She fishes her key out of her pocket and shoves it into the hole, twisting it as far as she can. About an inch. That's… not far enough to unlock the door. She jiggles it and tries to turn it again, but it won't go further.

The door is jammed.

 _What the fuck. This day… sucks_.

A giggle comes from her side and she looks, finding Jin sitting on the staircase across from their doors. It leads up to the floor above theirs. He grins at her, his tired meanness gone and replaced with a funny slackness that twists with his smile.

He is very, very drunk.

"Yo," she waves at him and turns back to her door, shoving herself against it. She trains and beats on the wood, jiggles the knob and twists her key this way and that, cursing under her breath.

Jin laughs at her again. "You're never gonna get it! _You can do this_!"

"Fuck me," she says, and punches above the deadbolt. It doesn't budge.

"Nah, you're too young. _If you insist_!"

River doesn't know how to tell Jin that she's probably ten years older than he is. So, instead, she groans and throws her shoulder against the door again, only succeeding in bruising her shoulder.

" _This is boring._ We should get locked out together more often, it's fun!"

River huffed and went to sit with him, leaning back on the steps. Her shoulder hurt. She looked at Jin. Sitting, it was hard to tell that he was actually a very tall man and totally jacked. Sitting, with his mask held in one hand, fingers rubbing over the eyeholes steadily, he was slumped and looked mostly harmless. More tired than mean, and even that was pretty goofy.

"Hey. Hey. Try a kick. You should kick it! _That won't work_."

"Kick it?" River stood, slowly, and walked over to her door. She lifted her foot and donkey kicked iy so hard she knocked herself back into the opposite wall. Jin laughed hysterically. At least she knew it was sturdy.

River leaned back on the wall, a little dazed.

Jin leaned closer to her, pushing his face between the bars of the stair guard.

"Wow. _Lame_. More torque…. than i expected. You've got a surprising, uh. Torque to size ratio. _You're really weak."_

"I'm putting that on my resume," she mutters, daggering her nails into the back of her jaw. "The torque thing. Not the weak thing. Maybe I could… huh," she mumbles to herself, nails biting skin and narrows her yellow eyes at the door. She walks closer to it, crouches at the key hole and considers what to do. The best thing would probably be… yeah.

"Okay," she says, "Jin, can I use your window?"

"Why? _You gonna jump_?"

"That's morbid. No, our windows don't lock for some dumb fuck reason. So, can I?" she bats her eye lashes at him and Jin nods, waving flippantly at his door even as he mutters a 'no'. She takes the permission regardless. She slips off her shoes and socks, puts them in front of her front door, and walks into his apartment.

It's… a mess. While hers has nothing in it to make it a mess, his is cluttered. Trash litters the floor, his bed is unmade, the radiator is home to a pair of socks that are more holes than fabric. The cabinets are filled with bottles, mostly condiments, she's pleased to see, and an ash tray sits on the window sill. The whole place smells vaguely of smoke and sweat.

River opens his window and climbs out. She grips the sill tightly and swings herself out. She uses her fingers and toes to creep over to the edge before she stretches a leg out. Only when her foot settling on the AC unit stuck in her own window does she push off from the other. Someone in the street gasps loudly and River makes a face. She presses her body against the wall of the building, holding onto window sill and digging her fingers into brick. With one hand she jimmies her keys into the small gap left between her window and the frame and uses it to shove the window open.

It would have been easier to make a platform and just walk on that, but she was still working out what she was doing with her quirk anymore.

She shoved the window open and tumbles inside, falling to the open floor. Tarmac sits in front of the door and stares at her, unimpressed by the display.

River flips the cat off and goes to bed.


	9. The Good, the Bad, and the Broke

River is more than a little surprised when Aizawa consents to letting her and Bakugou to use the training ground afterschool, but she's not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. So, she thanks him, and runs off to get ready.

It's still hard to look him in the eye some times. She still can't look at Tsu. The war in her chest hasn't calmed or stopped fighting. She repeats often to herself, she is a defense hero. She is not the Red River. And there in lies the problem.

A defense hero did nothing to defend.

Red River would have sliced the nomu in half and saved Aizawa without question. Kept All Might from pushing himself. Kept Tsu from being hurt.

So, how could she say she was a defense hero when a murderer was more use?

"If you're not gonna focus on the fight," Bakugou snaps, "I'm not gonna waste my time fighting you."

River lifts her head from the cement. She stares at Bakugou, his red eyes meeting her yellow. They're really very pretty. Bloody and dangerous, holding her. If Tomura was an Adder, Bakugou was a goshawk. Territorial, puffed up and perfectly capable to taking an enemy to the mat.

River smiles, a coyote in the city. Teeth dulled, claws clipped, no pack in sight. More dangerous than the hawk, more deadly than the adder, but no longer. A scavenger.

She spreads her hands out and shrugs casually.

It takes her two seconds to cross the ground between them and clock Bakugou in the face.

He stumbles, for just an instant, and then she's forced to dodge. The explosion roars in her ears. Bakugou glares hard at her and her ribs squeeze. The worries leave. She doesn't call a barrier. She doesn't need to worry about not cutting off limbs or holding back with her quirk.

With Bakugou, all she does is fight.

She side steps, leans just out of the way. Even when he starts flying around and get's more and more aggressive. Her hair falls out of its tie, a soft snap telling her that the hair tie was a piece of shit. It flutters down her shoulder. Red ruffled across her brow and over her ears.

She doesn't even touch him. She lets him try and hit her, sweat beading on his brow, red eyes filled with fury and a deeper determination that hadn't been there before. There's a fire under his skin now, a beast behind his teeth. River catches his wrist, pushes it away and coming in on the outside of his guard. Her other arm slips under his and drives into his side.

She doesn't let go of his wrist. Her other hand grabs hold of his belt and she plants one foot between his and shoves, hard.

She takes him down. He rolls with the impact, bucking beneath her and with his free hand he finally manages to land a point blank explosion, right in her face.

It stings. Wakes her up a little bit. Her left eye runs and her skin burns and splits before knitting itself back together. She doesn't like him, and he doesn't like her enough for the injuries to stick around more than a few seconds.

It still a few seconds Bakugou uses to his advantage. He plants his hand against her ribs, right under her boobs, and blasts her away from him.

She lets her thoughts fade. Let's her breathing even out and quiet and she fades into obscurity, becomes the thing in the corner of your eye.

 _Vanish into the shadows and erase your breath. Become the darkness. Become death._

He stands and looks straight at her, but he doesn't see. His eyes float right over her body and he spins, head snapping around. His hands are to either side, fingers spread, palms out. Ready to strike.

She flies at him, feet leaving the ground. Her knees lock around his neck and the spell is broken when she catches him, spins around his shoulder and drops halfway over his back. Her hands plant solidly on the ground and with a great heave she slams him head first into the ground.

They end with her sitting on his shoulders, cupping his jaw while her thumbs hover lightly over his eyes, closed with pain. She's breathing a little harder. He's panting heavily underneath her, his black tank top damp and stuck to his skin.

"Give?" she asks. He bares his teeth at her.

"Go to hell," he snaps, instead of doing what anyone else would. She pressed her thumbs, careful not to actually hurt him.

"Give," she says again, with more force.

He snarls.

They both he's lost and so she rises, letting him open his eyes and glare at her while he sits up slowly.

"I wanna go again," he announces. River offers him a hand and he knocks it away roughly, standing on his own. River lets him have his pride. Anne had told her once that men were fragile because of their pride. That if you broke that you broke them.

River can't agree. It is Bakugou's pride, overbearing as it may be, that gives him the will to stand up and come at her again. And again. And again. His pride pushes him to keep attacking her. Girl or no. Classmate or no. He wants to win. Only, he doesn't.

Even when he lands hits, she doesn't stop or hesitate. Between her healing factor and her pain tolerance, his blasts don't keep her at bay. Each time she pins him. Loses some skin, she's still a little to slow and lot out of practice, but she wins.

She doesn't know how many matches they go through.

By the time they're done her skin is shiny and her heart is somehow lighter. She thinks its maybe fucked up that fighting people makes her feel better, but she knows, at least, that it's a more normal thing for humans than her usual shit.

"Damn it…" Bakugou growls. He's still standing, but his legs are shaking and his eyes are getting clouded. The sun has set, at some point, and River is proud to find that her stamina is finally picking back up. It doesn't hurt that she's been using a minimalist fighting style.

River runs her fingers through her red-silver hair, pulling at a few tangles. It curls by its nature, and being free this long while she's moving around is going to really suck when she goes to brush it later one.

"Alright, firecracker, I think I'm about done for the night," she scratches her neck, absently, tilting her head away from it. "Plus, I'm starving. You wanna get dinner? Your treat."

"My- what kind of crap is that?" he demanded.

"The 'I'm a poor broke orphan in a foreign country and you're a big strong man' sort of crap?" she offers, fluttering her lashes at him. He looks away, his face flushed face screwing up into a grimace.

"Fine, whatever," he grunts. River is frankly surprising he's actually agreeing, but gift horses and all that.

"Sweet. What do you like? Sweet, sour, spicy?"

"Shut up," he grunted. Bakugou wipes sweat from his brow and, not even sitting down or resting, walked off. River trailed after him, her feet lighter. She bumped his arm with her and when he looked at her she grinned.

"You wanna do this again? Day after tomorrow, maybe?"

Bakugou looked forwards again, his mouth twisted and his eyes dark. River wished, vaguely, that she was some kind of telepathic. She wanted to know what he was thinking. What happened, behind those red eyes? Finally, a light went on in them. He started to grin.

"Yeah. And then, I'll kill you."

River, ex-Death Dealer, laughed in delight.

"We'll see."

Though, if things kept going this way, she was going to have to stop taking hits altogether, or he'd tear her apart once she started liking him. Unless he just hated her forever.

Kaminari could already stab her and stick. Jin, too, and Tokoyami and Jiro and Shinso.

It was amazing. For three years, the only person she'd let into her heart had been Carter and now it was overflowing with these people, these honestly, truly _good_ children who found a place in there so easily. Who made her ribs feel too small and her stomach empty and light.

She and Bakugou left the training ground and the school itself. They were the last ones there, even the upper classmen were gone. Shadows reached out from the building they passed, clawing at their feet. The city slept peacefully around the pair as they walked. There was no disturbance save the trains and the occasional bat flying above their heads.

River cocked her head and opened her mouth, tasting the air. It wasn't like the night she held the woman with the sunset eyes, and for that she was grateful. She didn't know how she would deal with all of that if Bakugou was with her.

She still had a million questions, but she was no longer in a position where she could find the answers.

There were some answers she could get though.

"Hey, if you get your sweat on something can you blow it up from a range? Or does it evaporate too fast?"

"It usually evaporates too fast," Bakugou looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Why didn't you use your quirk against me?"

"Huh? Ah, I didn't want to," she shrugged. "Honestly, I wanted to fight, not defend, and my quirk isn't good for that. Not really."

Bakugou scoffed. "Then you're not being creative enough."

River laughed lightly, tilting her head to look at the star studded sky. "Maybe. You're about the most creative person I've seen. Your hand to hand needs work though," she added, "You're all instinct. Not very refined, and there were openings you didn't take. If you had to fight someone who could cut your quirk, you'd probably be fucked."

Bakugou scowled and glared at the ground.

"We'll work on that later though. For now, feed me!" She fell against him dramatically. Bakugou threw her to the ground without looking. River laughed and pushed herself back up to run after him. She wasn't weightless, but it was better. So much better.

* * *

The uniform itched her neck something terrible. River had to fight not to scratch at it every day. By the time she got off there was always a little red spot on her neck each day after she got off her shift. As soon as she was off she scratched like there was no tomorrow.

She managed to get some blood under her nails when she was stripping herself for the night and her phone went off in her pocket.

 **Infinity Girl : Hey do you hate Tsu or something?**

River almost dropped it on Tarmac in shock. The cat wound himself between her legs, stepping all over the pants around her ankles and getting the white hair he somehow possessed all over them.

 **River: No, why?**

 **Infinity Girl : See you in class!**

River was left staring at the screen, trying to make sense of what she'd just been asked. She didn't hate Tsu. Why would she hate Tsu? Why would anyone hate Best Girl? Tsu was wonderful, and she and River thought the same things were adorable and-

River hadn't looked at or spoken to her in over a week.

Goddamn it.

River groaned a fell into the bed, burying her face into the sheets. Why was she so bad at people?

"Fuck me with a chainsaw," she grumbled.

She owed Tsu an apology and an explanation. It wasn't fair of her to do this sort of thing to other people. She was older than this, wasn't she? And, she'd already taken Aizawa's scolding, and scolded Todoroki for doing the same thing as she did. So, how could she neglect Tsu, who had done nothing?

River groaned loudly and shoved her face back into the pillow. Maybe if she suffocated she wouldn't have to deal with all this crap? She'd been niave to think that things would just work out if she settled with going with the flow.

 _Remember where you got your name? Remember Taro? He would box your ears and tell you to fight already. You're his daughter, aren't you? What would you do, if you were still acting like yourself?_

The answer to that, at least, was simple.

Hunt down All For One, Shigaraki and Overhaul and ensure that their heads rolled.

But, that wasn't an option anymore, even if it would solve to very many problems. Even if she didn't hold back. She couldn't go around killing people willy nilly. She wasn't a Death Dealer. She wasn't a part of REACH. She was attending UA, for better or worse. She was going to be a hero.

And, she really wanted Tsu to be her friend.

So, she had to go about things differently. Different from how she'd ever done anything in her life.

River had been a killer for thirty two years. To be something else was-

It was terrifying.

It was exhilarating.

She was excited and sick to her stomach at the exact same time.

She was starting to feel like a real teenager.

She didn't know if that was a good thing or not.

* * *

"I don't understand," she said slowly, "I've always shown up, I've come in when you've called on my days off, I really don't get it."

Her supervisor, Tenshou Inoue, looked at her from the other side of the desk.

"You're refusing to work your scheduled hours. That's grounds for dismissal," he said frankly. He spoke slowly, enunciating the way he always did with her. Like she didn't speak well enough to understand what was being said, even though she took orders and chatted with her coworkers and their guests both.

"My schedules hours overlap with the school hours that you knew I had since I was hired," she steepled her fingers in her lap, careful not to glare or growl.

"We really don't need people who's priorities aren't in the business's best interest," he smiled at her but it didn't meet his eyes. Not even a little. River was nearly swallowed by the urge to punch him in his smug face. "Unless you can think of some way to prove your dedication to your work place."

 _Ah_. River understood.

She leaned back on her chair, lifting on elbow to prop on the back of the seat. This was it. Her job was gone. Rent was due in a week, her next check wouldn't cover it, and a new job wouldn't get her the check in time. She let out a breath, her mask of compliance slipping into a distasteful glower.

"Is this because I told you 'cultural differences' isn't an excuse for putting your hand up Padma's skirt?" she drawled, arching one poorly maintained brow at him.

Tenshou stiffened, flushing around his collar. The smugness faded as quickly as it had come. "I don't know what you think you're implying-"

"Uh huh," she smiled at him at last, sharp as a knife and stood. "Touch a girl without her permission again. See who comes knocking on your door," she let the threat hang while his jaw lowered. "Have a nice night," she said, a lifted her middle finger over her shoulder on her way out.

River went to the girls locker room and spent a few minutes needed to change out of her itchy uniform and into her jeans.

Her hands curled, clenching an unclenching rythmatically until she couldn't keep still. She left the building, a fire in her chest starting to build.

This was bad. This was very, very bad.

River kicked at the ground, struggling to think. She had to make rent, she didn't have anyone who could cover her, and her meagre savings, all of them, would still leave her fifty yen shy. Nowhere would hire her and pay her within the next six days, certainly not somewhere that would accommodate her school schedule. Panhandling didn't really work in this city either.

Her options were limited. Slim to none.

She kicked a stone in her path so hard it embedded itself into a tree. She turned on her feet, bowed her head and prayed to god Jin was home. She had a massive favor to beg of him.


	10. Let the Games Begin

"Last chance to back out," Jin says quietly, his head bowed near her ear.

River levels him with a look. He's been halfheartedly trying to talk her out of this for hours, and encouraging her in turn. Now they stand on the outside of a bar that, from the outside, looks rather vacant. River takes one step inside and feels the lives beneath her feet, the movement that goes on behind the walls. Her sharp eyes catch the small indents in certain boards on the paneled walls, the dust pattern on the floor, the harsh reflection of the mirrored bar, hiding what may lie underneath.

The can see the eyes of the bartender, hawklike, a pretty violet. She's pretty, violet eyes and silver hair and a smattering of freckles across the left half of her face. A tattoo creeps up the side of her neck, literally, the ink whirling restlessly against her skin. River is a little in love already.

"Yo, Mura. Got a player for you," he put his hand on River's shoulder, giving her a light shove forwards. She stepped into the pleasantly dim light of the bar, holding herself lax. This, she knew. There was no fear, there was no hesitation here.

"A new player huh? You know the rules, little girl?"

The rules? Jin had given her the run through, but some things were universal. Inter-universal. Right down the policy she'd known all her life. River's hip jutted out to the side.

"We fight until someone can't get back up. We might have a second, we might not. Winner get's paid, loser gets pain."

"That about sums it up. What's your quirk, girly girl?" she leans across the counter to look at her, her amethyst eyes crystal and enchanting.

"Healing factor. It's not gonna be a fair fight," she says simply. She tries not to grin, tries not to hold a razor between her teeth but it doesn't really work. For the first time in months she actually knows what she's going and it feels _good_.

"No ones gonna go easy on you," Mura warns.

River feels her mouth stretching further, the smile growing. "Sounds fun. When do we start?"

Mura eyes her again, looks at Jin, then back at River.

"What's your name?"

She had been warned ahead of time that no one used their real names. It's smart, she sees the point. Jin is 'Twice' and she only has one name she'll respond to enough for it to seem natural.

"Red," she says, though it leaves a foul taste on her tongue. Her smiles easy into something less joyful.

"Really?" Mura looks skeptical, Jin looks a little bewildered and a little mean still.

"Really," she confirms. "Is that unacceptable?"

"No," Mura says at length. "But it's not very… original. Most people go based off of their quirk."

River considers this. Thinks on her own abilities and what she has been, what she is trying to be. Chronal static regeneration and spacial wards. Fancy words for healing and making walls out of thin air. She is never changing, she always reverts to exactly how she was that day in December, 2015. She always remains, watching the world roll on around her.

 _How shall men die better, than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of their fathers, and the temples of their gods?_

"Sentinel," she says at last, lifting her shoulder. "That's all I got."

Mura looks at her and finally sighs. "Red, then," she says at last. Leave your shoes at the door. No long shirts, no pants, no skirts, nothing you can hide a weapon in. This is person to person, got it?"

River almost tells her she's known this longer than Mura has. Instead, she drops her chin in a short nod.

"Alright. I'm leaving her to you, Mura. _This place gives me the creeps._ No it doesn't!" Jin grimaces and River watches him leave, concern etched into her features. She doesn't stop him though. She needs this. She needs the money.

In truth, she's tired of being hungry. She's tired of not being able to pay for heat. She's tired of working for nothing and going to school and barely sleeping. She doesn't know how regular people do it so often.

It sucks.

She watches Mura stick a hand under the counter and the floor moves. Pieces of wood lift up, revealing lights flashing. The smell of smoke, beer and blood greet her.

River descends.

The room is circular. Perfectly circular benches wind their way around the room to form an amphatheatre, and in the center is a pit dug into the earth. She could see the dirt packed down and stained dark, dark red. Along the walls were snack booths, more bars. The light was focused on the pit.

River watches the last fight end. The victor is a mammoth of a man, easily reaching seven feet high. Fur covered him and his arms, bulging grotesquely with muscles, wrapped around his victim. River listens to the roars of the crowds. She sharpens her ears.

Bets pass around one man with eight eyes and just as many hands. He moves fast, fluid, with skill. Most of the money is on the mammoth. Mammoth. His name. Of course. What else would it be? River wanders off to the nearest bar so she can turn over her sneakers. They're starting to wear down.

"You're going to fight?"

She glances to the side, finding a black mess of hair and shiny staples. The scars are eye catching, his gas glow grin ominous in the shadows. It's his eyes that really hold her. Brilliant and blue and burning even half lidded. There's a fire in him.

"I'm going to win," she corrects lightly. Ignores the bartenders scoff. "I'm Red." And she really hates the name.

"Dabi," he says, his eyes lingering on the reds in her hair. "You're cocky."

"Just place your bet and watch, hot stuff," she winks at him. She thinks he smiles wider but it's hard to tell with the scars. Someone helps the limping, broken body of the man who was not Mammoth out of the ring. Mammoth roars to the heavens, calling his next compedator. No time in between matches. There's sweat sticking his hair down to his chest and stomach. River grimaces.

"Scared yet?" Dabi asks, leaning closer to her on the bar. River grins again, sharp and hard and dangerous.

"Not even a little," she murmurs and leaves him behind. She passes the bookie and all of the crowds and when the sea of moving people gives the opportunity she jumps down, into the pit. She crouches low, landing hard and unevenly and kicks up enough rusty, copper smelling dust to hide the scars on her feet.

Mammoth towered over her, his shadow threatening to swallow all of her.

River stands slowly, drawing herself up. Her eyes are alight, her mouth is sharp. Mammoth cannot recognize the coyote before him, he sees only a slim girl, easy to crush.

He reaches for her.

River steps neatly out of the way, dodging by an inch. Her feet keep in small circles, her eyes never waver. He goes after her. Punches, swipes, his face under the hair grows red. River remains unruffled.

She lets go of her careful control. She flings herself at him, hits him hard in the side. He doubles over, his ribs cracking under the force of her blow. She darts around his side, her feet leave the ground entirely and she kicks his back with both feet. Theres a terrible pop and he heaves, spewing bile all over the ground in front of him.

Mammoth staggers to his feet, turns to her with a face marred with rage. River turns on her heel and runs. The wall comes up in front of her, people gather at the edge to throw her back in if she tries to climb out and escape.

They're unnecesaary. Rive plants her foot on the wall, pushes herself up and out and flips backwards over Mammoths head. She catches his jaw in her elbow, puts her other hand on his head and _twists_.

The crack of her neck echoes in the room. Silence falls, jaws drop. Mammoth falls like a bag of bricks, River crouched on his back. She rises, slowly, looking around them. The Referee, who's only real job is to shoot someone if they bring in a weapon, stares at her for a long few seconds. Finally, he looks up.

"Red wins," he says. River leans down and touched Mammoth's neck. He jerks, gasping desperately for air while she climbs off of his back and then up out of the Pit. She walks over to the bookie, who holds the victors winnings as well, and takes her money. Hers and everything Mammoth had won that night as well. The yen stack up in her hand, and in Dabi's when he comes to stand beside her. A lot of it.

She looks at him. They're the only ones who are collecting any money.

He flashes her a glimpse of his teeth in a smile.

River grins right at him.

"I'll buy you dinner," he offers, "since you won me so much money."

"Just what did you bet on me?" she had to ask, side eying him. Dabi shrugged, his face very close to impassive beyond the grin that would never leave. She wanted to pull at the staples. To touch his mouth and see where the skin was sealed, where the scars began, where the uneven flesh touched smooth. Her fingers itch.

"Take me out another time," she says, throwing him a smile. "I'll be going home now."

"Already? They'll have to start up a new bracket."

"Mmmm, I just needed some cash, and now I've got it. If I need more I'll come back. I have no interest in glory or fame or even hurting people," she says, looping her thumb through her belt. "My reputation here is nothing. All I fought for was money." Let someone else rack up all the rest of the money tonight. She got what she needs.

Dabi looks at her, his blue eyes bright.

She doesn't know what they remind her of. Not the ocean, certainly, and not the sky.

"Be seeing you," she says, and slips quietly into the crowds. They don't part for her. They don't even notice her, but still she can feel those blue eyes on her back. Burning, in a not so unpleasant way.

* * *

She's back the next night. So is Dabi. He bets on her again and she breaks a man with a snakes jaw in six different places, ties him in a pretzel and cashes out again.

He offers her dinner and she declines with a saccharine smile and dancing yellow eyes.

They repeat the song and dance each time she arrives, racking up cash. The more she goes, the less Dabi wins as people begin to understand that she may not have a clear quirk but she Dangerous.

River goes back every night for the rest of the week, and for the five days after it. It's smarter to come in at the last second, take all the money and ghost away. So she does, over and over again until she has enough to last her until the end of the school term. During her days she goes to school, and when she's not at school she occupies herself fighting Bakugou.

She does not go the night before the sports festival. She chooses instead to spend it with Tarmac and Twice, eating decent food, sitting on the floor in her still bare apartment while scented candles burn around them.

Tarmac cons Twice out of little chunks of chicken and they talk, about nothing, about LA, about how she knew that pits were there.

She shows him the scars on her feet, on her hands, on her ribs.

"Taro found me on one. He's my dad. He saw me fight and he spirited me away to become… more," she breathes the word quietly, closing her eyes and smiling softly.

"He's dead?" Jin asks, quietly.

"He is," she agrees. "For a while now. I miss him…"

"He'd been okay with you trying to be a hero? People who go places like that aren't exactly… good."

River startles both of them with a laugh. "He wasn't. Taro wasn't a good person. He was a mean man with a meaner temper. But, he loved me. And he wanted me to be happy, even if I wasn't doing what he did."

" _He sounds like a good man_."

River shakes her head and leans back, planting her hands behind her. Taro was not a good man, but he was a good father. She misses him terribly.

She thinks she always will.

* * *

River ties her hair back tightly, staring hard at her yellow eyes in the mirror they've mounted in the 1-A waiting room. It's getting longer than she'd like. She's going to have to chop it all off soon.

"Man, I wish I could wear my costume to this," Mina says from across the room. River doesn't mind much, the gym clothes are easy to move in and she's always liked the designs. But Mina looks totally bad ass in hers, so maybe it's a little different for the two of them. She glances briefly at Tsu and smiles at her when the frog girl looks back. Its awkward but its there. She still hasn't been able to formally apologize, or to really explain her actions, but she's stopped ignoring her, even managed to speak with her a couple of time but it's hard. She's not used to regrets.

River doesn't feel like sticking around for the Todoroki and Midoriya confrontation, but they have to go out as a class. So, before he can finish walking across the room to Izuku she stops Todoroki, stepping just in front of him.

"You ready, honey?" she asks, eyes brightening.

He looks at her, his mismatched eyes cold and far off. There is, however, a small light in the back of them that makes River smile wider. She touches his hand and smiles wider at him.

"I'll meet you out there," she promises. She turns from him and catches sight of Bakugou, staring hard at her from the corner. She winks at him and goes to sit by Jiro for the rest of their waiting time, talking with her quietly about a new album getting ready to drop, a concert coming up and nothing else really important.

Nothing really happened, until a pair of hands slammed in front of her, sparks flying out from between spread fingers. Jiro jumps back and River looks up, surprised but pleased, to find Bakugou looming over her, his red eyes intense and hard, glinting.

"This time," he growls, leaning right in front of her face, "I'm not gonna lose. Understand me?!"

River can't help the smile that blossoms across her face. She pushes herself up until her nose almost brushes his. She doesn't know where his sudden drive to kill her comes from, but it sends a spark of excitement through her chest.

"Go ahead and try, _firecracker_."

He rears up, puffing proudly and filled with battlefire. Jiro stares between them like they've both lost their minds.

Finally, they are called out of the waiting room and into the world outside.

River keeps her hands in her pockets, her eyes facing forwards even as a lightningbolt of fear lances through her, dawning across her skin as the light spills upon her face and makes the pale parts of her hair shine brilliant silver.

She fells unnatural and awkward as she steps in front of the cameras. She is not a creature meant for limelight. She is a being of shadow and smoke and whispered horrors. To be out in the open, to be put before the entire world can see her, it makes her blood too cold and her head too full. A tremor races through her bones.

She can barely feel her hands when they call her name to walk up onto the podium. She beat Bakugou's record. She is the highest scored student.

She doesn't do speeches. She doesn't do crowds.

She feels the rush of blood in her ears, hears only her heartbeat and perhaps that's why all she can think to do is lean close to the microphone, her yellow eyes fixed firmly and wide on a little point far ahead of her. A spot on the concrete wall of the stadium. The coliseum. Not so different from the Pits, is it?

"Let's go beyond," she raises her fist, black lace binding her knuckles, and almost smiles when a thousand voices raise around her, screaming 'PLUS ULTRA' so loud it shakes her to the core.

River almost sprints down the steps, ghostly pale.

Yaomomo looks at her with concern.

"Are you okay?" she asks, touching River's shoulder. River nods quickly. It feels like a rock is on her chest, squishing her ribs.

"Yeah. I'm just not big on crowds. Or camera's."

"Ah, that's right. You were upset about the reporters too, weren't you?"

River nods, leaning against the taller girl casually. Her love language was absolutely touch.

"You know me so well."

"Actually, I feel like I hardly know you at all," Yaomomo objects.

River cocks her head. "Yeah? Huh, you know we should all do a girls night some day."

Yaomomo's eyes light up but she can't say much more. Midnight is explaining the obstacle course. River leaves the rich girl, who she really should have just seduced when she first got hard on cash, to go stand with the rest of them. She puts herself right by the corner of the kids up front, let her shoulders drop and breaths.

The buzzar goes off. She starts at a dead spring, long legs carrying her swiftly across the ground. She's already out of the gate by the time the rest get smashed together and subsequently frozen. She doesn't think, she doesn't plan, she doesn't panic. All there is is running, putting one foot ahead of the other and staying ahead of Todoroki. The robots rise ahead of her and River dodges them cleanly, letting Todoroki freeze them.

She doesn't stop for the Fall either, or the mine field. She runs, her feet striking barriers she puts up in front of her. She stays a safe two feet off of the ground, her pace a steady run and ahead of everyone else, even Todoroki when he slows for the bombs. He, and the rest, are oblivious to her and she eats up the ground under her warrior strides, up until an explosion roars behind her. Her instincts guide her, she doesn't think about what she's doing, trusting the years and years of training she's put into this to take her safely to the `finish line.

She smiles when Midoriya flies past her, and finally drops back to earth once she's in the hallway that will take her back into the arena. Bakugou and Todoroki are at her heels, even if they don't know it. She lands a step behind Izuku while Present Mic roars above their heads.

It's… entirely uneventful.

"Huh," she says, and Todoroki jumps nearly out of his skin, "That wasn't so hard."

Bakugou groans loudly. "How do you keep doing that shit?" he demands, glaring at her.

"It's not my fault you guys didn't notice I was ahead of you the entire race. Look," she points up at the board that replays the best displays of quirks throughout the race. Izuku's explosive ending too. Ahead of everyone else, hard to see but still there, is River herself. Never slowing, never stopping.

"My quirk may not be flashy like yours," she elbows Bakugou good naturedly, flashing him a smile, "But it's practical, in its own ways."

It was perfect for someone like her.

Bakugou scoffs and leaves her, stomping over to Midnight. She could swear his face was a little red.

"So you made a shield to walk on," Todoroki was still looking at the monitors. "But, how did I not see you right ahead of me?" his mis matched eyes narrow at her, accusation clear.

River smiles widely. "My dad taught me how to disappear from peoples senses. To sort of, warp their perception around me I guess."

At the mention of her dad, Todoroki's eyes harden and grow cold. River's smile falls away. She wants to hug him. Wants to cut his father in half.

Instead, she get's interrupted by Midnight, preparing to announce the next contest.


	11. Here Comes the Cavalry

**OKAY! Before we go any further, since we're finally coming up on some important stuff instead of just me inserting her and establishing everything for River and her friends, a few things;**

 **I totally warned everyone. OC is op af. I am not kidding. River is absolutely the strongest character I've ever written, and some of you have read my other stuff. You know how my girls are. River is stronger than all of them. As of yet there is no one could take her head to head, except Kaminari. This includes pros.**

 **IMPORTANT! I made River before I ever even started bnha. She's an original character from an original story so I did not steal any ideas for her from here! (You'll see what I mean after the Stain arc) She's not a copy of any hero or villain! If I copied anything, it was Naruto, _thank you very much_.**

* * *

River had half expected to be recruited by Todoroki or Bakugou, but in the end she wanders away from all of them, ignoring Midoriya like everyone else, towards a familiar head of violet hair, messy and totally unkempt. Gravity doesn't touch it at all.

River comes up Shinso with a bright smile on her face.

"Hey, Shinso! Let's work together for this one, okay?" She tosses her arm easily over his shoulder, pulling him in. Ojiro is already there, so they only need one more person…

"Really?"

She looks away from Aoyama, back towards Shinso, who stares at her with unreadable violet eyes. River smiles and knocks her forehead against his, lightly.

"Well yeah. What's better than kicking ass than kicking ass with friends, right?" she reasoned. Her hesitance to answer his questions was long gone. Shinso opens his mouth, closes it, and nods.

"Yeah. Right. That thing you did during the race, where no one knew you were there, can you do it again?

"Sure I can, but it would only be me, not everyone else. And, I should tell you, my quirk won't work on Kaminari, Jiro, Tokoyami and maybe Todoroki and Bakugou, I haven't tested with them yet," she doesn't say it won't work against him, either. Shinso doesn't question her further, just nods.

"We'll avoid them, and take all the other head bands. We'll need one more person, someone long distance… Or, maybe not," Zombae looks thoughtful, a slow smile spreading across his face.

"What-cha thinkin?" she asks, bouncing lightly on her feet.

"I'm thinking about what the rules say," he says, and River feels herself grin.

"Oh, I think I might love you," she says, sparkling. "Just tell me what to do."

Shinso does, and River is very glad that her vanishing act is different from Toga's and she doesn't have to hold her breath to make it work. Shinso climbs onto Ojiro's back and River clasps her right hand, the one with the tattoo, with his.

"Ready?" she asks, looking up at Shinso. He nods shortly, and they take their place alone with everyone else, the headband proudly displayed upon Shinso's brow. Her heart started beating faster. Excitement grows under her skin.

They wait, electricity buzzing through her skin. She shares a smile with Shinso and aims one at poor, brainwashed Ojiro. She would feel worse for him, if she was friends with him, but as it stands they're only classmates and so she doesn't really care about him one way or the other.

That… might be a bad thing.

They won't be able to get the 10,000,000, because she can't block dark shadow and the other two aren't made for the same high maneuverability that she relies on, not even Ojiro, who is strong and quick, and very useful with his tail, can't keep up with her agility and flexability, especially not brainwashed. They won't be able to go after the 665 or the 615, because she doubt she'll be able to hold back Todoroki or Kaminari, and they don't have a decent defense in any other case. They can't out maneuver them with Iida and the roller skates. Bakugou, they might have a chance against, if he's as focused on Midoriya as she thinks he will be.

River braces herself, yellow eyes bright, and the count down begins.

 _Three._

Shinso leans down and touches her shoulder, whispering to Ojiro.

 _Two._

Everyone elses attention turns to Midoriya, save their team and Monoma.

 _One._

The teams explode off the ground, aiming for Midoriya in a massive, unintended pack.

The three of them dodge the ice that Todoroki leaves in his wake, letting it hold the rest of their competitors locked in place. It makes it all to easy to swoop in.

Ojiro rushes towards the back of the groups, his eyes distant but his body still holding up Shinso's weight easy enough. River isn't a part of that. She swings to the side, twists herself between people and rips headbands off of heads and away from necks before anyone even knows she's there.

Kendo tries to pull away from Ojiro and Shinso, but she doesn't notice River in their shadow until she's already slipped around her big fist and stolen their points. She retreats with the boys, throwing a wink at Kendo, who really is a cute young lady, and they beat a hasty exit. They aren't the only ones with this plan though.

They're almost upon their next targets, Pony and Mantis-Fucker, who's name River can't recall to save her goddamn life, when a shadow appears and a hand comes out of it. Reaching for Shinso. Not a shadow, just Shihai Kuroiro.

River flips over Ojiro, managing to keep hold of his hand, to throw her palm flat up and force a wall to stop them in their tracks. The team bounces off of it, manages to stay upright but still goes skidding and she lets the wall drop, lunging for them. Ojiro's tail lands under her feet, pushing her higher to snatch at Monoma's throat and all the headbands there.

He knocks her hand away and their skin brushes. His eyes gleam.

"Nice quirk. Think I'll borrow it," he smiles, his eyes filled with a near hysterical glee and lifts his hand to block her second attack.

Her hand flies through air and she grabs as many of his headbands as she can, ignoring the utterly shocked expression on his face. She grins and flips back to grab Ojiro's hand again, and they leave the stunned boy behind.

 _So, weak against sound but immune to copy?_

And, just what did that mean for her? She knew her quirk wasn't really a quirk, and now Monoma probably knew too. Could Monoma copy All for One? What about One for All? She had so many questions now.

She passes the headbands up to Shinso's who's smiling a little wider and the light in his eyes keeps glowing. River grins massively up at him, happy to see him so full of joy. She doesn't really care about winning herself, but she's having fun. She's excited, her friend is happy, and they're doing just what she say they would.

Meanwhile, Midoriya is struggling not to be totally overcome and Bakugou is in a squabble with Todoroki. They really do not get along.

Monoma seems to have recovered from his surprise but he avoids them for the rest games, still choosing to challenge Bakugou. With as many headbands hang around Shinso's neck, and River's impenetrable defense, it's his only option to get enough points to pass. River's impressed, by his guts and his stupidity. It's not smart to underestimate people so filled with fire. It's very, very dangerous.

Bakugou would beat the shit out of him.

"I think we have enough now, don't you?" Shinso asks. River nods, looking around them. There's only a few seconds left. A flash of blue and Iida reveals his recipro-burst, which is admittedly awe inspiring, and Bakugou explodes away from his horses in a roar.

River listens to the count down, locks down a wall around them to keep anyone from taking their points last minute, and lightly hip checks Ojiro, who startles suddenly when he's knocked out of his trance right as time runs out and the announcer roars.

"TIMES UP!" Midnight screams into the microphone. River is maybe just a little bit giddy.

The scores appear on the board, and she cheers loudly.

"In first place, team Todoroki, with 10,000,325. In second place, team Shinso with 1,995 point! In third place, team Bakugou with 665 points, and in forth place, Team Midoriya! With 615 points."

Shinso touches her shoulder and smiles down at her, his eyes glowing and his teeth flashing.

"We did it."

"We're awesome," she agrees. "Thank, Ojiro," she adds, smiling sweetly at the monkey man, who still looks a little dazed, and a lot confused.

"Uh, huh?"

She helps Shinso hop down, keeping her arm around his middle and doing a little dance "We're so awesome," she says, and he rolls his eyes but puts up with her antics.

"Thanks. For teaming up with me."

"No one else I'd rather fight with," she says, and finds to her own surprise it's the truth.

Shinso doesn't say anything for a minute, then he loops his arm around her middle as well, instead of just putting up with her touching him.

"No one else I'd trust to have my back," he says, and while she's struck speechless he leaves to accept a high five from Kaminari, who's practically bursting at the seams to see him. He stands with the other members of his team, who all look very excited. All of them, but Todoroki, who's eyes are clouded and filled with conflict.

River takes a breath and walks away, no matter how much she wants to trail after the pair and listen in on the conversation, she knows if she does she'll only make herself angry and more likely to go after Endeaver, laws and morals be damned.

Instead, she goes to lunch, catching Kaminari's arm and Shinso's on her way.

"Let's eat!"

* * *

She didn't really think about the match ups, or about Ojiro's resignment or the uneven number of people that it put forth into the brackets. They still decided to pull two people, to even out Shinso's three man team and replace Ojiro, who gave up his own slot, and gave them not to team Testutestu, but to team Monoma.

River watches them discuss quietly, until Monoma takes one slot and the other is given Shihai. Rive cocks her head, curious despite herself, and waits for the brackets. Their teams in the training simulation were really random, so maybe the vs brackets would be too?

She leans on Kaminari while the lots are accounted for and the bracket appears on the big screen.

It was…. exactly the same.

The only difference was it was Monoma vs Kirishima, Shihai vs Kirishima, and River vs Ashido.

Shinso was still facing off against Midoriya.

River cringed on his behalf. Shinso had come a long way in terms of physical combat, she'd made sure of that, but even so if Midoriya broke out his quirk it would be over fast in a head to head fight. And, she knew what would happen if Shinso used his quirk on him. It was going to be nasty.

She was not looking forward to this, not at all.

In the brief time before they were going to fight River took herself away from the crowd and the stares, which still made her feel sick to her stomach, and shut herself into one of the prep rooms. She didn't have an instrument, or anything like that, so she beat against the garbage can and the table until she had a rhymth beating under her skin and a song on her lips.

 _We're the kids who are dead inside, but we're the ones who feel alive. We dream 'cause we don't sleep. We'll never get rest, but we got this-_

By the time she was done her heart was easier and a sweat had broken across her skin. Her stomach had settled again and she was reminded of Taro. He hated acoustics, but for her he would play them, and soften his voice to match until it was not a rough scream that the world never listened to, but a low baritone that was only for her.

She was thinking about him a lot these days.

It was a comfort, despite her sorrow, as she stepped back out and took a seat in the stands in time to watch the match ups. Up first, Shinso and Midoriya.

She'd been training the crap out of Shinso, when she wasn't fighting Bakugou or in the Pit. She had a lot more free time and a lot more money without a job. She felt like that said a lot about the world.

She felt many things.

She watched, chin propped on her fist and her shoulder almost brushing Bakugou's shoulder when Midnight started the fight.

At first, it went exactly the way it started. Shinso goaded him into speaking, took control of him, and tried to make Midoriya walk out of the ring. Midoriya broke out and charged Shinso while he tried to get him to respond again, taunting him, weaving his tale of longing and desperation. Over the loud speaker Aizawa explained how Shinso never stood a chance in the entrance exam.

Then, things got interesting.

The punches he landed on Midoriya were harder. When Midoriya started pushing him, Shinso pushes back harder. It desolved into a grappling match, Shinso still shouting, and when Midoriya got him in the throw-

He locked his legs around Midoriya from behind and he punches him straight in the back of the head, sending Midoriya crashing to the ground.

She sat up higher.

"Oh shit," she breathed, "This is getting good."

"He's not going to beat Deku," Bakugou said for certain.

"No," she agreed, and feels a little like a traitor for it. "But he's not going quietly."

Bakugou grunts, watching with just a little more interest as the Shinso manages to catch Midoriya's arm and twist it so far it snaps. Midoriya shouts and lashes out, the barest amount of green flickering across his skin. Shinso dodged, barely jumping back. He was sent stumbling backwards when the wind erupts from such a small movement.

Midoriya stood back up, gripping his broken arm. His was a little red, sweat sticking his hair down. Pain twisted his face but he didn't stop, he threw himself at Shinso with just the one arm. Shinso, trained by her and to be rather ruthless, keeps going for his broken arm, or his head. River felt her chest swell with pride.

 _"You want them down. Don't let them get back up."_

 _Shinso, breathing hard beneath her, his violet hair flat and matted with sweat, stares up at her through red rimmed eyes. His arm it twisted so far the shoulder is out of its socket, pushing up against his t-shirt. River gently removes herself and helps him sit up. Her yellow eyes are never hard._

 _"That sounds… bad," Shinso says while she bends his elbow._

 _"If they can get back up, they can attack you, or the people your protecting, or your teammates. Break their bones, cut their tendors, tie them up. It doesn't really matter, as long as they don't get back up. Take a breath?"_

 _He does, his eyes never wavering from her._

 _"Let it out." She waits until his lungs relax to lift his arm above his head. The joint pops right back where its supposed to be. Shinso muffles a shout._

Midoriya throws another punch, Shinso caught him and threw him over his shoulder but Midoriya managed to grab his wrist and turn, throwing all of his weight behind it. Shinso went flying to the ground. His foot landed out of the ring and Midnight called the match.

His lip was bloody and his face was twisted bitterly. Midoriya was beaten hard, bruised and bleeding.

"He fights like you," Bakugou stared at her out of the corner of his eye, his hawk eyes missing nothing.

"Yeah? You do too," she agreed easily. "Shinso… he's growing fast. That kid's gonna be dangerous."

"As dangerous as you?"

She looks at Bakugou, surprised. He stared at her with a hard intensity, fire in his eyes. Accusation in his voice. She didn't know what to think of that. He thought she was dangerous?

"As- no. No, probably not," she admitted, looking back at the ring and Shinso's twisted pain. Her stomach clenched in sympathy. No, he will never be as dangerous as she is. There's few people who could do that, and Shinso would never know the things that driver such people to the length she has gone to. She will make sure of that.

Because Shinso is hers now.

And, she was far too selfish.

"I'll see ya, when I kick your ass," she told Bakugou, winked at him, and left her seat to go catch Shinso before he could get to the General Studies seating area in the stands. Along the way she passed by the tunnel to the outside world, and was unfortunate enough to hear the last of Todoroki's vicious vow.

"I'll win, using only Mom's power. I won't fight with yours."

A dark scoff.

"That may work while you're in school, but soon enough you'll reach your limit. You'll see."

River was struck, frozen by the words. She stood still, her hands clenched at her sides so tightly the bones creaked and threatened to break under her own strength. But they were broken too many times, microfactures and splinters, and they were stronger now. They held. Even when she looked up into the cold eyes surrounded by a ring of fire.

Endeavor towered over her, flames framing his face, his red hair wild and his eyes nothing more than hard zircone. A cheap imitation of a diamond. He stared at River so long she expected him to say something, anything, but in the end he left and she was forced to stare at his retreating back.

It was hard not to think of how easy it would have been to draw a line and leave him in two pieces, screaming while his guts smeared across the floor.

"River?"

Todoroki's voice, mildly surprised, broke her from her dark musings. She looked away from his fathers retreating back to see the son watching her. His pretty eyes narrowed and hardened.

"What did he say to you?" he asked, looking after where his father had gone.

River felt herself soften. Harsh as it was, it was still concern that made him ask. River stepped closer and wrapped her arm around Todoroki, startling him into stiffness. His right half was still cold, his left half a more human temperature.

"Nothing to me. I'm fine I just… think I might hate your dad," it's strange to admit.

Todoroki didn't push her off, his jaw dropped onto her shoulder. The chill dropped further.

"Join the club."

River snorted and leaned her head until their hair, both pale and red and all mixed up, fell together from her pony tail. Todoroki was still stiff, but she'd conditioned him to simply take her affections at this point. Most of the class was that way. Except Mineta. Fuck that little perv.

"You know, it's weird. We're like polar opposites," she said at last. Perhaps part of her mind was still on Taro. Perhaps she was just feeling chatty. Perhaps it was that Todoroki asked her what she meant, for she went on without much filtering.

"Well, you got your quirk from your dad, who raised you to take his place, but he's an ass to you and nice to the rest of the world and you hate him and reject him," she summarized. Waited a second for Todoroki's chin to touch her shoulder.

"I got my power from my dad too. And he raised me doing the same job as him. He was a dick too, he was cruel to everyone but me, and I treasure the gift of his power every time I used it… But you know, honey, that fire of yours, it isn't his. It's _yours_. _You're_ the only one who gets to decide what to do with it, and you shouldn't let him rob you of that decision."

She finally let him go, stepping to look into his wide eyes. She smiled at him one more time.

"I'll see you out there, yeah?"

"You- yeah," he said slowly, staring at her like she was the strangest thing he'd ever seen in his life. And maybe she was. It wouldn't surprise her.

She made her exit, going from hugging one boy to the next in just a few minutes. She caught Shinso trying to recover some of his dignity before he went back out to face his classmates, eyes wet. He, at least, accepted her embrace without question.

"I lost," he told her shoulder.

"You fought so well," she told his, rubbing up and down his spine. "Shinso, you're going to be an amazing hero one of these days. I can't wait for you to join my class."

He squeezed her, his shoulders shaking, and took a deep breath. She hummed softly in his ear, working small circles into his back until he'd calmed down enough to speak clearly.

"Just make sure I'm not taking your spot when I get there."

River laughed, but a part of her did wonder about that. If any of the teachers ever found out what she'd done, where she'd come from… Perhaps it would be her spot open in the class.


	12. Fight Fire with Fire Or not

**hooooly shit i have so many reviews! Gotta say you guys, it's the reviews that keep me writing! Thank you all 3**

 **AaronCole! Don't apologize for that review it literally made my day! I saw it and I kept showing it off to my roomie it made me feel really good and really proud of myself for still managing to make things good even with such a OP main character! I have so many things to say to your review but I don't even know that I have the words omg.**

 **For the update schedule, it's honestly whenever I finish a chapter. If you check my profile I'll tell folks what I'm update for sure by at the end of the month, but a lot of the time it's just whatever I've finished or whatever I had the inspiration for at any given time. This story has like, consumed my life lately though. I'm going so fast partially because I want to get to my own plot already!**

* * *

When he first got her in his class Aizawa knew there was something not quite right about River Quinton.

During the entrance exam, she wasn't stressed out. She seemed to be having fun. She stood out, catching more points than anyone, without breaking a single robot. Her maneuverability was high, her reflexes were quick, and her thinking just as fast. He'd rarely seen a teenager hold together their quirk with so much precision and accuracy.

It was abnormal that she would be that good, and have so few records to fall back on.

It was even more abnormal that, when he called her previous schools, none of the listed teachers could recall more than her name. Not her face, not her friends, not any trouble she had gotten into.

That sort of thing, frankly, didn't happen.

The principal told him to keep an eye on her.

So he did.

Then, the USJ happened.

He hadn't realized she was there at first. Not until he looked up and caught her gold eye staring at him. They were filled, not with shock or fear or horror, but a conflict. One he couldn't place.

He tried, without being able to use words without screaming, to tell her to run.

She ran alright.

He didn't remember most of the fight after his head was smashed, but he remembered catching sight of her hovering above him, blood on her hands, fire in her eyes, and her teeth bared in fury. It was all he had, and from what he'd heard about the damage she took from the Nomu, he was almost glad he couldn't recall the crunch of her bones or the red of her blood, or seeing her tackle Tomura Shigaraki into the lake.

The girl had no regard for her own safety, no fear, no limits.

Nothing about it was logical.

She inserted herself with people as easy as breathing, befriending the most standoffish person in the class, intentionally fighting the most violent classmate, and taking the time to coach and fight with a student she'd met one for the exam.

She didn't make sense. He didn't understand.

And, as he watched her walk onto the stadium arena, her shoulders bunched and her eyes wide, he understood even less. She scratched at her neck, a nervous habit she had. She was afraid, he could see, of the crowds. He'd seen it when she'd first come out. He'd seen it when she gave the speech. During the race and the Cavalry battle the fear was overridden by the competition but now all eyes were on her and Mina.

How could someone face down a Nomu but be unable to stand a crowd?

She was entirely illogical.

Mic was more than happy to give their introductions, which was fine with Aizawa. He was busy trying to figure out one of his most troublesome students.

"Now, racking up points with no visible quirk as all, is River Quinton!" Mic, unlike pretty much everyone else, can say her name with no trace of an accent. "Verses – Is something going on with those horns? From the hero course its Mina Ashido!"

"Were those the best introductions you could come up with?" Aizawa has to ask, but his attention was solely on the battle field. He doesn't know what to expect. He definitely didn't expect River to throw herself forwards, stop Ashido's acid attack with only one small barrier, and use it as a hand hold to vault herself over the other girls shoulders.

Her feet caught under Ashido's chin, her hands planted firmly on the ground and all she had to do was twist herself at the middle and Ashido was sent flying out of bounds.

It was over in an instant.

But, it gave him a look into how she fought that he hadn't had before. Quick, efficient, and a little bit brutal. She crossed the ground to help Ashido up, laughed at something, and the girls left the arena together.

It was almost enough to distract Aizawa from the match that came after theirs, and by the time someone in the crowd started booing Bakugou for giving Uraraka the respect of a serious fight, he was at about the end of his patience.

There were so many variables. So many things they didn't know and didn't make sense. Who was River, why was she so insistent on holding back her powers?

He ended up with the most complicated class out of all of them. Vlad had his share of strange students, but between Todoroki and the chip on his shoulder big enough to sink the titanic, Midoriya and his ridiculously self destructive quirk, Bakugou and his unshakable pride and River with her nonsensical _everything_ , he could feel a migraine coming on.

At last, she returned to the stage to fight Tokoyami, her friend.

Aizawa sat a little straighter.

This one should have been harder. She should have had a tougher time. Tokoyami's dark shadow was a hard quirk to counter, even if she could block him.

She didn't. And, it wasn't.

She didn't use her quirk a single time in the fight, and it was still over in an instant. She spun away from the bird, jumped and twisted and avoided him until she had landed herself right in front of his wielder. She got inches from Tokoyami's beak before she drove her knee into his gut, caught her arm under his jaw and locked down.

The way she moved-

Speed. Dexterity. Hard strikes and dangerous near misses.

Her eyes never changed.

Something in him clicked. Something he should have seen a long time ago, and was so obvious in tr

 _River moves like- an assassin._

* * *

River watched from the stand as Minoma beat Kirishima, and almost took down Bakugou as well before he was knocked out completely. She wasn't surprised when Shihai didn't make it past Kaminari, and she was even less surprised when Kaminari beat Iida, shocking him before he could get close enough to deal any damage. Even if his quirk had its drawbacks, the energizer bunny was powerful. Not quite powerful enough to beat Todoroki though.

It was a quick draw that decided the match. Todoroki froze Kaminari before he could shock him, and apparently ice, unlike water, did not conduct electricity very well. Or at all. And electricity did not melt ice.

Kaminari caught her on her way out for her own match, his hand on her arm.

"What's up buttercup?" she asked brightly.

"I want you to do something for me," he started, grabbing her other arm and leaning right in, until they were almost nose to nose. River blinks at him, almost cross eyed when she tried to focus on what he was saying.

"Uh, what do you need?" she asked, trying desperately to remember if she'd brushed her teeth this morning. She had, right?

"Kick Todoroki's ass."

River paused, touching Kaminari's elbows. His gold eyes were bright and a little vicious and a lot beautiful. The battlefire in them glowed faintly and an electric shock swept through her body, making her hair prickle on her scalp and raise with goose flesh along her arms. A smile stretched across her face and she leaned on his toes to kiss his nose.

"You bet-cha."

He let her go, laughing. She put her hands on her hips, looking at him better from a distance.

"But, first I have to beat Bakugou."

"He doesn't stand a chance," Kaminari dismissed easily, waving his hand. River threw her hand back and laughed.

"I'll catch you on the other side," she promised, and passed her friend to step outside. Into the sunlight, into the lime light, the whole world watching. She sucked in a breath, held in, and let it out as she tried to stop the panic that tried to creep into her mind. Everything in her screamed to run. To hide in the shadows, let the public see nothing of her face, no distinguishing features. Not her tattoo, not her hair, not her eyes.

She beat it down with a mental sledge hammer. She did not have time for panic attacks today. Bakugou, while a dick, deserved her to at least give him her attention while she was kicking his ass.

As of yet, he had never won a single fight against her. He'd gotten close, but each time he was getting better she upped her gave just enough to win. Enough for him to get a taste of vague victory before she wrenched it from his grasp and pushed him to keep going forwards.

Today, there was something in his eyes. This wasn't a mocked up spar in training grounds that a few robots were watching to make sure they didn't go totally overboard. This was a serious fight. He wanted to win.

It she didn't think it would kill him, River might have let him. It was probably too much already, what she'd done. Getting this far in the festival would get her noticed more than she'd been trying to, but she was having fun. She wasn't letting loose, or else someone would have lost an arm already, but she was getting to stretch and play and be.

It was fun.

She didn't want it to end. She didn't care that much about winning.

But, she didn't really want to _lose_ either.

So she took her place on the platform, watching Bakugou with eyes half shut and hands open, palms out. She wondered…

"Begin!" Midnight shouted, and Bakugou roared towards her, exploding off of the ground and through the air.

She wondered…

One of his hands lifted, pointing towards her. Sparks started around his fingers. River slowly lifted her hand, braced herself, and called up a barrier.

Bakugou's explosion shot off to either side of her, smoke billowed around, making it hard to see. Making it hard for him to see her. She let herself disappear, stepping forwards when she dropped the wall and aiming a punch at where she knew Bakugou's head would be. She would be lying if she say she wasn't a little disappointed. But, perhaps a weeks and a few fights wasn't enough for everyone to let themselves open their hearts the way she did.

A hand caught her fist.

Her eyes went wide.

The smoke cleared out, revealing a grinning Bakugou. He threw his hand at her, palm flat, and smacked her in the face hard enough to send her flying straight out of bounds. She managed to keep herself from being disquialified by bouncing off of a wall of her own creation a few inches inside the boundaries, stumbling to her feet. A few chunks of charred flesh fell off of her shoulder before they were replaced, leaving her jaw whole and smooth.

She looked at Bakugou, a question on her lips.

"I made the smoke on purpose," he told her, baring his teeth, "Even if I couldn't see you, I could see where it moved. You can't sneak up on me anymore!"

No, she couldn't. But she knew now that her barriers worked on him.

River started to grin. So Bakugou had found a way around her little tricks with little tricks of his own.

"Clever boy," she praised, dropping into a low crouch. Her muscles bunched up, her eyes glowed softly with a growing excitement. Sometimes she forgot, Bakugou wasn't just brute force or indomitable will. He was _smart_. He always got good grades but more than that his natural instincts in combat and his ability to analyze a situation and react accordingly were amazing. If she didn't know better, River would think he was one of Anne's people.

But, despite his talk about killing, he was no killer.

She bolted towards him. He lifts his hands and launched explosions at her that she blocked. She planted her hand on open air and levied herself up, dropping a kick down on his head. He stepped back, dodging it by an inch and slammed an explosion into her thigh. Tried to, she blocked it with another wall.

River spun into his arm, drove her arm into throat and launched him almost out of the ring with the force of her blow. He managed to keep himself from falling out with a couple of blasts, even as he choked. He glared at her, tears pricking his eyes.

River winked at him, mouth curved upwards.

Her blood sang.

"Is that all you've got, Bakugou?" she taunted. "There's not a scratch on me!"

He snarled. "I'm gonna break those damned barriers of yours!" he screamed, his voice hoarse.

River planted her feet, pointed to the ground. The line appeared across the entire arena, ending along the walls that lead up the spectators. She made sure to avoid Midnights stand and Cementoss's seat.

"If you can cross this line," she announced for the whole world to hear. "I'll give up."

A Bakugou grinned, terrible and bright and stretched his hands out to ethier side. River stood her ground, watching with no small amount of awe as he left the ground. He was sent one way, then the other, and spun himself in the air until he was a tornado of force, aimed right at her.

"Howitzer impact!" he roared, his voice echoing in her ears.

She felt the impact in her bones, jarring her and actually forcing her back, pushing her but not her line. She didn't even know that was possible.

Bakugou fell to the ground, shaking a little on the other side of her wall.

River dismissed it, walking forwards. She wasn't even sweating. She stopped in front of Bakugou, grabbed his arm, and flung him forcibly out of bounds.

He didn't stop himself this time.

He bounced a couple of time and lay where he was, still trembling all over. River looked at Midnight, who's hair had been swept to the side and her glasses thrown askew. Half of the crowd was a little crispy and a little smoky, and the other half was totally unharmed. For a long moment, everyone was in shock.

Midnight raised her whip.

"River wins!"

She looked back at Bakugou, watching as he picked himself up, his face hidden in a shadow. She wanted to pat his head and tell him it was alright. She wanted him to learn something from this whole festival.

She turned the other way and started walking.

Just one more fight to go.

* * *

River stood across from Todoroki, hands behind her head. A smile spread across her face. Todoroki stood across from her, his mis-matched eyes not quite focused on the present, but some of the fury in them had faded from when they'd spoken before. In its place was an uncertainty.

"Hey!" she called, drawing his attention away from the floor and up to her. "Gimme your best, yeah?"

Todoroki didn't say anything, but his mouth turned upwards a smidge.

He nodded shortly and Midnight raised her whip.

"Begin!"

For a minute there was silence. From the competitors. From the audience. Even Present Mic kept his commentary to himself. She watched Todoroki, waiting. Slowly, she lowered herself to the ground, legs bunching up underneath her.

Todoroki always started with an ice wall. His attack would come from her left. She rocked on her feet, leaned to the side, and when it came she threw her weight to the side and jumped, using a barrier to bounce off of and get away from an ice wall that would have covered her completely the way it had Sero. It was only a little bit smaller.

 _So, he wants to end this fast?_

River stepped into the fog that rose off of the ice, letting out her breath. Bakugou had trained with her and found a way around her tricks, but Todoroki had only seen it once, and she wasn't going to let herself be caught the same way with his fog. As soon as she was out of sight she left it behind, moving fast.

Todoroki looked around, brows furrowed. He stepped forwards, frost erupted under his foot River grinned and jumped, dropping down to make a small cloud on his left. Todoroki's face snapped towards her and he tried to turn, frost on his right hand.

River let slip, coming back into his sight and kicked him straight in the head. He was sent flying over the ground, managing to roll as he landed and get to his feet before she was upon him.

"Come on, honey, where's that fire you had before?" she teased, hopping neatly over the ice he tried to spear her with.

"How can you talk about that when you've barely used your quirk this whole competition?" he retorted, he dodged her next punch and came up with one from his right, still sans fire.

"My quirk isn't suitable for offense," she shrugged, twisted and dropped, lashing out to knock his foot out from under him. Todoroki dropped back and slammed his hand on the ground. Ice erupted from the earth. River flipped backward, hand springing off of a barrier. Her feet planted on another one and she launched herself back towards him. "And I've used it plenty!"

Todoroki threw his arm at her and she reacted, lifting a barrier up to block.

It shattered.

Ice speared through it, smearing crimson in its wake. River's skin cracked and blood erupted from her side.

"What's this?" Present Mic's voice broke over the grave site silence of the crowd. "River is… bleeding? And so is the air? And it's not healing?"

Todoroki stared at her, horror spread across his face. River sighed and slipped off her gym jacket, now drenched in blood. She tossed it away, revealing the thick cracks that wept across her shoulder and down her side, staining her purple tank top. Blood dripped from the cracked edges of the broken barrier, running down the ice. It dripped down onto the cement.

She smiled at Todoroki, joy spreading through her despite the pain that radiated from her injuries. She ran for Todoroki. He reacted, barely, lifting his arm even as he stared at her blood slicked side. No ice came from it. She threw herself at him, striking hard and true. He barely blocked her, so she picked up the pace, hitting harder.

He stumbled away from her, took a hard hit to the face, and finally lifted his quirk. Ice on his right and she was coming in with a right hook. He wouldn't be able to turn to catch her and they both knew it.

His eyes flew wide and he lifted his left hand, sweeping it to the side. Fire erupted between his fingers and, in her surprise, he managed to knock her hand back and slap her across the face. The force of it sent her stumbling but she righted herself quickly, turning in time to throw herself at him again.

She stopped a few steps into her attack, brows furrowed. Todoroki was shaking slightly. He was staring at her, horror all across his face.

River's cheek screamed with the pain of the burn. The cement under her was wet and her shirt was heavy with the blood still dripping down her arm. It didn't stop or slow her, but Todoroki's face did.

She walked towards him, slowly. He took a step away from her, panic starting to emerge on his face.

River grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back two more steps before she stopped, frowning at him.

"Torodoki is out of bounds! River wins!" Midnight, too, sounded a little confused. There was a stuttering of applause before the stadium finally roared alive with cheers. River didn't pay them any mind, the fear of being seen gone. All of her attention was reserved for Todoroki, who had yet to look away from her.

The shattered barrier finally gave way and blood fell to the ground with a sickening 'splat'. Todoroki looked like he was going to be ill, for reasons River was totally sure she understood. They had all come in ready to hurt one another, hadn't they?

"Why aren't you healing?" he asked, his normally even voice starting to shake.

"…let's go talk," she said instead of answering him where the whole world might hear. She removed her hands from both of his shoulders to wrap an arm around his back and push him forwards, torwards the stairs. "You can walk me to Recovery Girl okay?"

He nodded, struck mute. When she looked up at her classmates, they were just as stunned as he was. It was fair. They'd seen her regrow a totally destroyed rib cage.

Todoroki walked her all the way to the infirmary, where Recovery Girl was waiting. Even though Midoriya had been in the stands watching their fight someone had brought him back into the hospital room. She could see his silhouette, and All Mights, behind a drawn curtain. The spoke in hushed tones that she politely pretended she couldn't hear.

"I must admit," Recovery Girl said upon seeing River being brought to her, "I didn't think I'd see you in here during the tournament."

"Todoroki found my weakness," she said by way of explanation. The boy helped her to a bend and she stripped off the rest of her tank top so Recovery Girl could see the extent of the damage. The cracks went from the top of her arm to halfway down her ribs. Blood still flowed freely, all of her movement not giving them time to slow down or try to clot.

"I see," Recovery Girl looked her over while Todoroki politely averted his gaze. He tried to leave but River caught his hand. She'd scared the life out of the poor boy. He deserved an explanation for what had happened.

He stiffened, then sat back next to her. Recovery Girl kissed River's burnt cheek. She was surprised by the sudden surge of energy that erupted through her, and the feeling of all that energy being drained right out. She slumped when the old lady pulled back, leaving her with a few spider-web's along her side, but when she touched her cheek it felt perfectly smooth and flat.

"I'll see if I can't find you a new shirt," she said, and left to give them some privacy.

For a few minutes, there was just silence between the two of them, River quietly rubbing circles around Todoroki's knuckles from where she refused to let his hand go.

"…If ice is your weakness, why did you try to block it?" he asked at last.

"Hmm? Ice isn't my weakness," she disagreed. He looked up at her, the question clear on his face. "Sound, I can't block that. That's a weakness. But Ice- sorry, I've never really told anyone about this before," she confessed. She took a breath. "My powers won't work against you. I wasn't sure if they would, when this first started, because. Because they don't work against people I care about, and people who care about me in return."

Todoroki stiffened.

"If a friend tries to punch me, I can't block it. The wall will break, and it will bleed, and so will I. The walls and I are connected by blood. If a friend hits me, it won't heal. I'm weak to my own heart, you see," she smiled at him again, her yellow eyes softening. "I was actually, really glad when you broke it. It made me happy, to know that you think I'm your friend too."

Todoroki bowed his head and finally leaned against her.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, "I burned you."

"Mmmm," she squeezed his shoulder lightly. "I'm not apologizing for punching you."

He huffed against her shoulder and River let her smile grow. She was weak to so many people here. And she was just fine with that.


	13. Pick Your Fighter

**This ones kinda short sorry guys!**

* * *

River was being followed.

She wasn't sure who it was. That in itself was horrifying. Whoever it was, they were skilled, dangerous, able to keep out of her sight even if they couldn't hide from all of her senses. Only the very good could get the drop on her. And now, someone was following her.

She gripped her bag tighter, keeping her gaze fixed on her phone as she threaded herself between people in the street. It wasn't Tomura, he wasn't good enough to hide from her. It wasn't Dabi, he'd just walk at her side. It wasn't Jin, he was out working that day. No one she fought in the Pits had what it took to sneak up on her. She couldn't think of anyone else who might want to.

So she ignored it, for the time being, hood up to hide her face from anyone who might have seen the sports festival and to give her some semblance of cover. Unnerved but undeterred, she made her way into the school their first day back after the festival. The feeling had followed her all weekend, even when she'd just been sitting at home.

It even followed her into UA.

That, was the most troubling thing of all. No one could get into UA easily.

A mystery was afoot.

River was not a fan.

She sat in her desk, unusually quiet, and stared at the board until Aizawa came in, free of bandages.

She had forgotten, when he'd been a mummy for so long, that Aizawa was cute, in a scruffy vagabond sort of way.

"Your bandages are off," Tsu pointed out, sounding delighted. Her froggy voice made it harder to tell, but River was listening closer to her these days. She wanted desperately to be her friend but-

"Yeah," Aizawa touched the new scar on his cheek and River tried to ignore the stab of guilt that shot through her at the sight of it. "The old Lady went a little overboard. _Anyways_ , we have a big class today, on Hero informatics."

Aizawa paused to let everyone quietly flip out while River sunk a little further in her seat.

"It's time to pick your code names."

The tension broke with cheers of celebration. River sat back and watched as one after another her classmates went up and picked their names. Her eyes kept flickering to Aizawa, and his weirdly nice looking face, and midnight and her… everything.

River scratched her neck and looked out the window instead, feeling a little warmer than she wanted to.

 _Those heels…_

Nope, nope, nope. River stood up suddenly, walking quickly to the front to try and calm a couple of her nerves. Thinking the movement would help, but it just put her closer to Midnight while Aizawa slept on in his little cocoon.

She dropped her sign on the podium, heart beating faster when everyone's attention was on her. She couldn't ever begin to explain what the name she put up meant to her, she coudln't tell them how different her life had once been or how hard she was struggling to change her future. It had come up once before, but now she was more sure. Now it was more than a hole in the floor and a little cash. This was for real. She couldn't explain all of that. So she didn't.

"The Defense Hero, Sentinel," she said simply.

Midnight clapped her hands together. "Perfect!" she crooned. River couldn't make herself look the woman in the eyes, she just sort of smiled in her vague direction and retreated back to her seat. How could Midnight look both adorable, and like a dominatrix? This world was so weird.

Uraraka stood up and walked to the front, her board hidden until she was in front of everyone. Then, she flipped it around.

"I'm Infinity Girl!"

River's mouth fell open while Midnight nodded enthusiastically from the side. "Wonderful!"

A warmth settled in River's chest and she smiled happily at Uraraka, who looked at her with a wonderful amount of pride. River sat through the rest of class, and when the slide came up showing everyone's offers she wasn't even a little surprised that she had the most. She had won, soundly beaten all of her opponents, and she hadn't been frothing at the mouth during the award ceremony. This time, Bakugou hadn't needed to be restrained quite so much, but he'd been still been chained up. No muzzle, thankfully.

Aizawa handed out the papers on everyone's offers. Each page was phrased a little like a job application. It listed the hero interested in her interning for them, the agency they belonged to, basic information on the hero and their specialty.

At the very bottom, some heroes added comments or explanations for why they wanted her. Most of them were very generic 'I think you could learn a lot here' or, 'it's a good opportunity for you to broaden your horizons'.

Aizawa gave them the rest of the day to look over the applications and use the computer labs for research. River sorted her pile swiftly, removing people based on location, fighting style, and focus. She didn't need anyone to teach her combat, she already had that down pat, so any highly combative heroes were out of the running immediately. She was the opposite of Uraraka. River hadn't really thought much about the type of hero she wanted to be. Like Aizawa, really, she wanted to work under the radar and out of sight, and it would be so, so easy for her to navigate the underground and fight.

But, she doubted he would want to take her for an intern, since he hadn't sent her an offer, and so she was stuck narrowing her list down to just a few people.

"Man, River, you got so many!" Kirishima leaned over her shoulder, Kaminari appearing on her other, to look at the stacks she'd sorted everything into. River shrugged, leaning back so the boys could see.

"I mean, I won," she mumbled. She didn't know what else to say.

"I bet I could have beaten you," Kaminari declared. River snorted, but didn't argue with him. He was right, afterall.

"Mhmm. Do you guys know where you're going?" she asked, looking between the pair.

"I'm gonna go to the Chivalrous Hero, Fourth Kind. He sent me an offer."

"I'm still looking at mine," Kaminari admitted. "I just don't know where to go. They're all so cool!"

River snickered. "Well if you really need help deciding, you could always go ask Midoriya," she pointed to the boy in the back, who was starting to grow mushrooms. Kaminari laughed a little, swinging his arm around her shoulders.

"Yeah, good point. I might. Do you know where you're going yet?"

"I think so. I just wanna double check some things." She picked up the top paper in front of her. "I'm thinking about this one," she showed it to the pair of them. Kirishima took it from her, red eyes ghosting across the ink.

"The Wizardry Agency?" he read aloud. "Why them?"

"Wizard works a lot of metropolitan rescue jobs, I'd like to get a closer look at how he does things," she said by way of explanation. It was only one part of why she was interested in his agency.

"Yeah, but doesn't he also get in the spot light a lot?" Kaminari propped his elbow on her shoulder and the three of them crowded around the page. "You hate that kind of stuff."

"I do," she agreed, "But, I need to be able to work with the media instead of against them. There's no way I'll be able to avoid reporters all the time. Even Eraserhead can't do that. So, I'm going to see if he can teach me how to work a crowd, so to speak."

"Wow," Kirishima finally gave her paper back. "You've really thought about this, haven't you?"

"Nope," River disagreed. "I've only really been thinking of it for the class period."

Kirishima took the paper from her again. " 'Wizard' huh? I don't know much about him. I was always into fighting heroes."

"Yeah, me too," Kirishima agreed. "Who's your favorite hero, River?"

"Huh? Mine?" She looked up, surprised, then shrugged. "I guess… I don't know," she finished. Kaminari almost fell over.

"Huh? Lame!" he whined, leaving her to flop into his seat. "You have to have a favorite!"

"Nope, sorry," she shrugged. "I mean, I wanna be a hero like Eraserhead, but All Might is also really amazing, and Midnight is cool, and so is Sir Nighteye. Shit, maybe Sir Nighteye? I don't know."

Kirishima snickered at her expense and sat down next to her, looking up at the ceiling. "Man, this is gonna be so cool."

River leaned back further in her chair, looking once more to the window and the world outside. 'Cool' might not be the best description for it.

* * *

"So, where do we wanna have the sleepover?" Uraraka asked from around her straw. She and the rest of the girls sat on the grass outside the school, circled up. Mina, who was only a little less physical than River, had stretched herself out on the older girls lap while Jiro reclined against a tree. Uraraka sat criss cross apple sauce not far from her, Hagakura at her side, Tsu had perched herself on a tree trunk, and Yaomomo finished the circle.

They were planning, of course, the girls night that River had promised Yaomomo during the beginning of the festival. They _were_ going to use up the day before they went away on their internships. Go home from school together, then come back to school the next day together, since they got a late start that day to go to the train station with Aizawa. But, then they remembered that if one of them was late, let alone every girl in the class, happened to be late, he would murder them all.

So, instead, they were going to all meet up after their internships and follow someone home.

"There's not enough room at my place, sorry," Jiro shrugged.

"Yeah, mine either," Mina agreed.

"My parents don't like me having people over when they're not hope," Uraraka added. She looked at River questioningly.

"Ah, well. My place is pretty small too, it's just one room," she admitted. "And, it's not in a very night neighborhood."

"Then it's settled," Yaomomo dropped her fist into her palm. "We'll all go to my please. I'll have mother arrange for a driver to pick us up at the station, and we can hold it in the west parlor!"

River watched with no small amount of amazement as Yaomomo went off into her own little world, chattering about all of the plans she was going to have to make for them to come visit.

River finally broke into giggles and leaned close to Yaomomo. "You're like, really cute when you're excited," she announced. The taller girl stopped talking, surprise and then a smile crossing over her face. "If you don't mind us using your kitchen, we can all make our own pizza's for dinner," she went on."

Yaomomo clapped her hands together. "A wonderful idea!"

They went on that way, planning and plotting and laughing until River felt tears touch the corners of her eyes she was laughing so hard. She liked these girls. She liked them a lot.

She was glad they were all going to have relatively easy internships.

She was, admittedly, a little worried about her own. Wizard was a camera whore, but he was still based in Hosu.


	14. Infernal Internships

**Just so everyone knows, Gabe, Jess, Gen, and Jackie are all place holder names because I keep changing my mind on their real names. They'll probably stay the same in this, but if any of you ever end up reading a River of Stars (The story River comes from that is as of yet unpublished) those will not be their names. In the meantime, uh, Overwatch.**

 **On another note, I'm putting so many OC's in this chapter please help**

 **If any of you wanna see an OC of yours in here, now's the chance!**

* * *

Train stations were usually pretty crowded, but with all of them circled up around the less-than-imposing teacher of theirs people tend not to bump into them, giving the kids in UA uniforms more space than they would anyone else. It's nice.

River leaned against Jiro, listening as Aizawa goes over things one last time. That they would behave themselves, that they had their uniforms, that they understood they were representing UA in this and they would uphold the good name of the school.

Only after he dismissed them did they break up. River hugged Jiro and waved farewell to the others before she went skipping off to her train to Hosu. She didn't sit next to Iida. She wanted to warn him, not to go after the killer, not to run off from Manuel, not get himself into trouble.

But, she didn't. He wouldn't listen to her. They weren't friends. She knew the look in his eyes too. Pain drove people to do things that they would otherwise never dream of. Grief pushed people to places they would otherwise not step foot.

River knew.

She was born of pain. She was raised in grief. But she had had a saving grace. She had had Taro.

Iida would be fine, she knew, if Midoriya and Todoroki went after him.

But she couldn't stand there and do nothing.

The memories of Aizawa's blood soaking the ground were too fresh. The image of Tsu's face starting to disintegrate was to clear.

She had trusted in the plot before. She had given into complacence based on her knowledge. She would not do the same things again.

 _"Sometimes we have to learn things the hard way," Anne says, her voice painfully soft and mockingly kind, as if she does not stand above River, barely eight, with a gun in her hand. River's blood stains the fine wooden hilt of the small pistol. "It doesn't matter how much it hurts."_

 _River fights to stand up again. She raises her fist, throwing herself at Anne. Anne steps to the side and aims further buffaloing at River's bloody head. She ducks this time, coming in at Anne's ankles. She ducks behind the grown woman, slamming her fist into her kidney's. Her middle finger pushed up by her thumb into a point._

 _"It just matters that you learn," River finishes from behind her. A victorious smile starts to spread across her face._

 _Anne spins around and smacks her on the head so hard she hits the ground, dazed. She has to watch through stars as Anne, her hands covered in inky lace, cleans the handle of the gun. Anne grins sharply down at her._

 _"Don't forget to mind your arrogance, too, lil' girl."_

River frowned to herself. She had thought, when Taro had first introduced her to Anne, that she might have found a mother. But it hadn't worked out that way. Anne was not like Taro. To Anne, River was little more than a particularly sharp knife, a trusted weapon and occasionally a person.

The train came to a halt and River stood, grabbed her bag with practiced swiftness and hopped out of the train on Iida's heels. They weren't the only ones getting off of the train, a stream of people pushed and shoved against them until River popped out of the other side on barely steady feet. Her heart beat faster. There were so many ways to get stabbed or poisoned in a crowd like that.

Finally, she managed to get her bearings. She looked around her at the city, big and booming and full of noise and light and life and plugged in the address for Wizard's hero agency into her phone. She swung her bag over her shoulder and tossed Iida a smile, but he was already halfway gone.

She huffed and shook her head. She would see him again, soon enough.

A lot of people were about to get hurt.

This was going to be a long day week, she could already tell.

The sun was a little over halfway through the sky, so she still had a good amount of time to walk to the agency without it getting dark. She didn't meander, and risk the entire population of the city hating her, but she did take her time to people watch. She still wasn't over how open people were with their quirks. It was just amazing. She didn't think she could be in love with a societal concept and yet here she was.

Here she was, loving how people walked so carelessly and easily and trusted in the heroes to keep them safe.

Perhaps it was her American mindset or the years and years she'd spent doing less-than-legal work, but the idea of trusting authority figures to actually have your health in mind was surreal. Even more surreal was the idea that heroes cared about people on a personal level. That heroes cared about her on a personal level.

It made her heart warm.

Still, there was something in the back of her mind that just… didn't click. Something that said 'Wrong. This is Wrong'. But she couldn't place exactly what it was.

She came to a stop in front of a short building made of glass and stone.

The sign read in a beautiful script 'Wizardry' in neon lights that flickered across the smooth cement. River adjusted her backpack strap and pushed the door open, taking a step inside. Immediately the smell of gardenias invaded her, like she'd walking into a Macy's. Her eyes almost watered and she nearly walked right back out but powered through instead.

The reception room was professional, with a secretary in a hero costume sitting behind a desk. A line of plush chairs sat against walls. She could see two doors on either side of the desk. Both of them had Wizards personal sigil, a minimalist design of a man holding his hand in front of him with a ball hovering before it, on the frosted windows, one in silver, one in gold.

River walked up to the desk, holding her head as high as she could manage.

The woman behind it looked upon her. Instead of having hair she had a crown of white feathers that lay back against her head, giving way to a small plum of longer black ones that lay against her long neck. Her costume consisted of a halter topped one piece suit that gave room to her arms, also covered in white feather with longer black underneath. She had fingers like a bat, coming out of the joints of the wings that were otherwise folded against her sides.

She was neither young nor old, perhaps thirty, and her eyes were a kind green.

"What do you need, dear?" she asked, awarding River a small smile. She held herself not quite strictly, but certainly disciplined.

"I'm River, River Quinton. I'm here for an internship with Wizard?"

Understanding dawned and the woman nodded, once.

"Through the left door, they're waiting for you," she nodded her sharp nose towards the door.

 _They?_ River wondered, and followed the directions. The door was heavy, solid, and a glance at the frame revealed it to be reinforced. _The ones at REACH were reinforced to, and look at all the good it did._

River shook that thought off and stepped inside. It was a nice enough room, but it was set up like a house staged for viewing. Fine leather chairs sat across from a long couch with a coffee table in the middle. A mural decorated the walls instead of any pictures, an elegant swirl of blacks and reds and violets that came together to form what she thought was a bird, but might have been Santa Claus surfing on a lawn mower. The lighting was tinted a sort of yellow, giving the whole room a golden feel.

Sitting on the couch, spread grandly, was Wizard.

She knew who he was, she'd looked up videos and seen pictures of him online. The base of his suit was a green body piece that lead into thigh high gold boots. With a gold vest that popped into a collar and a gold visor that wasn't so different from Rivers, he looked like if Booster Gold slung a bedazzled gas mask around his neck and dyed his hair neon green.

The other person was much less eye catching. A rather plain looking boy, but handsome in his own way, he stood when she walked into the room. His eyes and hair were both coal black and he wore a simple grey polo buttoned up. A case like her rested against the seat. Another intern?

"You must be River," the boy took her hand, smiling at her sweetly. "It's so nice to meet you. I saw you on TV, you were really cool in the sports festival. I hope I can learn a lot from you and Wizard while we're here." A sparkle shone around his face.

"Oh, uh. Yeah," she said, looking at him. His eyes… didn't match his kind words or his tone at all. Pitch black, calculating.

 _A Lesser Grisson. Fierce and tricky, prone to playing with their foods._

"What was your name?" she asked, carefully extracting her hand from his.

"I'm Yo Shindo, but my hero name is Quake. I'm a second year at Ketsubusu. I can't believe you're already doing internships in your first year."

Now why did that sound familiar?

"You already know I'm River Quinton from UA, but my hero name is Sentinel," she said politely. She lead the way to the chairs, set her case and her backpack on the ground and sat down. Wizard had watched their exchange but as soon as they were down he leapt to his feet, throwing his arms out to either side.

"I am Wizard! The most magical hero you'll ever meet!" he cried. Lights dazzled around him and River wondered if it was a quirk or if it was just an effect of his personality. "And this week you two are going to learn what being a hero really means! We'll have an exciting time!"

River was almost knocked back by his enthusiasm. She was really starting to wonder about her choices.

 _Maybe I should just elope with Jin and Dabi and start the Vanguard early…_ they _don't sparkle or yell in my face._

"But first, your Heroes-to-be, your bunks. Follow me now, a quick tour and we'll let you settle in tonight. Hup hup! Up-two-three-four," he clapped a rhythm and lead them out of the room, bouncing from one foot to the other. River looked at Shindo, trying to see what he made of the situation, but he was still smiling like nothing was wrong.

"Here at Wizardry we have six full time heroes, eight side kicks, and fifteen part time heroes," he went told them, leading the pair out into the greeting room.

"One of our heroes is, of course, Miss Heron. She's our eyes out in the field, so don't think you can slip any mischief past her."

He took them quickly past the secretary, who looked vaguely amused and largely exasperated by his theatrics, in through the other door and down a long hallway. It, like the other room, was painted in abstract confusion. River was pretty sure she'd walked through a cobweb on the way through. There were two door ways without doors, one that lead to a big dining room through which she could see a kitchen, and another that showed off a massive display of computer monitors. A man sat hunched in front of them, a long hood pulled over most of his face. Eight arms worked fast, taping along and switching camera feeds from one to another.

"That's one of our heroes now! Our tech wizard-"

River arched a brow at his introduction.

"-Anansi. Don't be fooled by his tech savi ways, he's no technopath. Instead, an illusionist extraordinaire, on par with myself."

Anansi looked over his shoulder at them. He was handsome, if a little boyish, brown eyes and brown hair, a black man with freckles that took up more of his face than anything else. He waved at them with one hand, and went right back to what he was doing.

"Mysterious, isn't he? A man of few words," Wizard gestured out before him. "Onwards and downwards!"

River followed, confusion crossing her face. Downwards?

Wizard lead them to a door, opened it, and revealed a staircase that went so far down River couldn't even see the bottom. She leaned over the edge, looking down in abject horror. That was a lot of steps.

She did say she needed to work on her cardio…

"Most of our facility is underground," Wizard told the pair as he lead them down. "Myself, Anansi, Miss Heron, as well as one other heroe and two side kicks live here full time. Should you need anything for any reason, we aren't hard to find. Our rooms are labelled."

He lead them down, past rooms that were, indeed, labelled. With his name, Heron, Anansi, as well as Detox, Chiroptera, and Beowulf. There were other rooms, and plenty of them. Alongside the stair case ran a ramp.

"These will yours, for now," he stopped not even halfway down. "Underneath us are storage rooms, bunkers, and a medical ward that we'll show you tomorrow. They're very standard, I'm afraid. For now please make yourselves at home. We don't normally have interns, but you two seemed… special," Wizard smiled at them. "There's great promise in the two of your, and I look forward to helping you reach your potential."

Wizard opened both doors. There was a distinct lack of security here. It made River's skin crawl. She thanked him and stepped into the room.

It was not made for one person. It was a bunk, made to fit at least twelve. Six bunk beds lined each wall, and in the corner were steel bins. A kitchenette was set into the wall. It was made for functionality, not comfort. River shut the door, propped her bag against it for all the good that would do, and picked a bed to lay down on. The bottom bunk, a descent mattress and a soft pillow.

It reminded her of REACH, before it had been destroyed. Only here there was no Gen and no Jess, no one to interrupt her right as she was drifting off asking if she thought there was a god, or if she was 'feeling it now, Mr. Crabs?'.

She missed them. And now, here, she missed Jin and his tired mean face and Todoroki's mismatched eyes and Jiro's soft hands and sharp humor. She missed them.

She almost missed the feeling of being watched that had faded almost as soon as she'd walked into the building, and left her with questions. Who was it? Not Tomura, who she hadn't seen hide nor hair of since the coffee shop. Not Aizawa, surely? Not her sleepy teacher, who didn't have enough free time to be following her around all day.

The thought of him hanging around all day…

River shook her head and shoved her face into the pillow.

The weird, and honestly very creepy, thing about being seventeen eternally was that teenagers and adults were both attractive. It was frustrating, and flustering, and it left her feeling gross and wrong no matter who she looked at. Carter hadn't known about her 'condition', he just thought she had a bad case of baby face and she had never been inclined to correct him. They'd been about the same age when they'd met, twenty four, with her finishing up her degree and him finishing up his time in the navy. She had never changed, not since the day she got her power, but the world kept turning and the people around her aged. She had memories enough for thirty seven years, she felt like an adult sometimes but she didn't think she'd ever stopped being a teenager. Not that she'd ever _really_ been one in the first place, her rearing was far to convoluted for that and-

Maybe, with quirks existing, it was less convoluted here? But the question remained, was she seventeen or thirty seven?

River's head hurt just thinking about it.

Was this how Edward felt about Bella? Shit, if she was in BNHA was there somewhere out there where vampires were covered in glitter and the Quileute _were_ actually skin walkers instead of just stuck with the reputation that had nothing to do with their real tradition?

River rolled over in the bed, staring out into the darkness.

She missed Jess and Gen. They had loved her so easily, so openly, and didn't give a damn that she was everything that wasn't supposed to exist. She missed Gabe his gruff humor and bland logic and sharp tongue. She missed Jackie and his iron will and shining intellect.

She closed her eyes and her thoughts were filled with smoke and longing and loves so far lost.

* * *

The next day found River sitting in the dining room with Shindo while a young man rushed about them. His black hair was cropped neatly and his red eyes were set above a straight nose. His wide mouth had yet to twist into a smile that River could recognize.

He told them that his name was Detox, and that was that.

Across from them was Chiroptera, a young woman with her brown hair almost shaved off and red eyes that seemed to glow faintly. Her ears were the only things that were particularly interesting. Massive bat ears flicked too and froe, curving lightly to the back into a sharp point. Two pure white stripes straced from her nose up her forehead into her hair and along the ears. She ate at a few slices of fruit, watching the pair of teenagers idly.

Next to her was Wizard, who was noticeably less sparkly in the morning. He looked less like a wizard and more like a zombie, sipping coffee desperately out of a mug the size of River's head.

 _That can't be healthy,_ she thought. Aloud, she said, "Will Anansi eat with us?"

"No," Detox said simply.

Wizard lifted his head. "He eats himself."

River was pretty sure he was missing a couple of words in there, but who was she to judge?

Detox dropped a place in front of her. Rice, fish, and chopped up veggies. Shindo got the same thing at her side, but he was faster to thank Detox with a shining smile that made River's eyes hurt,

She wanted to know how to do it. Bakugou would kill her if she sparkled at him every time they talked. It would be awesome.

"What are we doing today?" River asked Wizard.

"Huh? We're going to a party!" the sparkles returned and River felt her stomach drop.

A party?

She looked to the others for any sort of explanation, but Shindo looked just as surprised.

"Social events are very important to hero work, espeicially for a group like ours that doesn't fight directly, but instead focuses on search and rescue. Our work is expensive and more than just our government funds we also have a number of private investors. It's also good PR, which is important for any her."

That was the most she'd heard Detox say.

"It may sound greedy, but operations cost money, and we're a pretty small agency as is."

"How big is a big Agency?" River asked.

Wizard answered her, "The biggest Agency in the country is out west, they've got about seventy heroes and over a hundred side kicks. We're pretty small next to them. The smallest Agency right now though is, funny enough, Mt Lady's. She's the only hero, and she doesn't have any side kicks yet."

"She's got an intern this year," River said helpfully, "One of my classmates."

"Poor kid."

The voice came from the door and River looked up. She knew immediately that the man who'd walked through the door was Beowulf. It wasn't hard to figure out. He was a hulking man, having to duck the doorframe to get in. His hands were massive paws and his whole body was covered in fur. His face was long, a canine snout with a puppy dog mouth and big ears perked up on top of his head.

"Hello, sir," Shindo rose to bow to him. River had far less manners, and just waved from her seat.

"No, no, I'm not a sir," he said quickly. "I'm only twenty!"

"Beowulf will be helping you too get dressed for the party tonight. He's also a fashion consultant."

This whole place was a little big hilarious.

"In the mean time, I'll take you kids out on a patrol," Chiroptera spoke for the first time. Her voice was high and sharp.

"We don't normally go on patrols," Detox admitted, "Anansi tells us when a disaster strikes and we respond, so there's really no need for us to wander around town looking for trouble."

"So it's a special day!" Wizard leapt up, light shining around him. River had to learn how to do that. "Go get changed, kids, you'll leave right away!"

"Says who?" Chiroptera grumbled, shoving her face down into her puffy fur collar.

"Says the guy who pays you," Wizard flashed her smile. The young woman grumbled and stood, leaving the room. River wolfed down the rest of her food, shoved her plates in the dish washed and she and Shindo ran off to get dressed.

They met back up again in Wizards office, with River in her black and gold suit, her visor in her hands. Quake appeared and it clicked where she knew him from. The black pants, the gold jaw-guard that covered his cheeks. There was a thick green strap over each of his shoulders that attached at the front to two black plates with golden trimmings which cover the sides of his chest, that was otherwise bare. He was tall and built well.

He was the one who split the earth during the provisional license exam. He was powerful and cunning. But, wasn't he supposed to be a second year with Miss Joke? Shouldn't he have already had his internship his first year? Or did Ketsubusu do things differently?

River shook off her thoughts off and the trio left, Shindo keeping his peaceful smile on his face the whole walk into the big city. River walked on Wizards left side, watching the yellow tinted world around her. The sun beat down, warming through her black suit.

They walked the streets for a few hours, Wizard posing with fans and gesturing grandly as he gave them a weird tour of the city. They ended up at the hospital a couple hours before heading back to the agency to get dressed.

River looked over the waiting room. It was surprisingly void of people. A woman in the corner coughed every few seconds, two men sat by the same baby carrier looking over a magazine. A boy cradled his arm to his chest while his mother sat beside him.

River paused there. There was nothing remarkable about them. A broken arm on a child wasn't uncommon. The woman was unbruised, her make up was thick but her face wasn't swollen up anywhere. Still, the boy bothered her. The break on his arm, the placement of his hand…

The nurse called his names, Juushiro Inoue, and the pair walked through the door. The child all but silent, his head bowed and his shoulders hunched.

"River?" Wizard asked. She turned away from him. She had no evidence. She had nothing but a suspicion and years of life with unsavory people, with the bruised and the broken, and memories of where she'd been before Taro.

"Yes?" she looked at him, and Shindo, who was eying her curiously.

"Are you coming? Or have you decided to become a doctor?" he teased. River shrugged it off and went after him. It was easy for kids to hurt themselves. Fall of skateboard, fall out of trees, run into the streets. She had no reason to be so suspicious.

"I'm coming," she said swiftly, rushing to fall into step behind him. They left the hospital and travelled on, and River's mind stayed with the boy in the hospital.

"Wizard?" she stepped up next to him, clasping her hands in front of her.

"Yes? What is it?" he smiled down at her, glittering.

"I was just wondering, what do we do about people being hurt by, not villains," she struggled to say it aloud.

Wizard's smile fell. "What do you mean?"

"I mean like, domestic disputes and stuff. If they're not using their quirk, or they aren't a villain, what do we do?"

"Nothing," he said, and River almost fell on her face. Her stomach dropped.

"What do you mean, 'nothing'?" Shindo caught up with them, his own dark eyes on Wizard.

"I mean, there's nothing that we can do. Police handle things like that. Unless a quirk is involved, or multiple people's lives are on the line, heroes generally don't get involved. Especially in grey area's like domestic violence. Our quirks are heavily regulated, heroes can only use their quirks as long as it's not for themselves, and sparingly when it comes to harming people. Most heroes don't act on domestic violences. They'll pass information along to the police, and the police with handle it."

River felt sick. She was silent the rest of the trip back to the agency, her mind turning over all she'd learned.

* * *

It's not a place that River thought she would wind up, when she agreed to take the internship from Wizard, and honestly its not a place she's ever been before. Draped in a fine red dress the color of her hair, her make up almost natural looking besides the glitter around her eyes, her hair curled and let to flow long. The dress flatters her, the bell sleeves flowing around the black laced gloves on both hands now. It separates in front of her stomach before flowing into a mermaid skirt that's far too tight around her thighs for her taste, her shoulders are exposed from the cut straight across.

While Shindo mingles and talks at Wizard's side with the rest of his side kicks, she stands by the punch bowl and tries to ignore the people that keep looking at her.

She really, really hates it.

Shindo talks so easily, smiles so freely and gets people to like him barely even trying. The only thing that betrays him are his eyes. Onyx, stone, he is not kind but he is not as cruel as she is. Still a good person but not very nice.

River, River likes people. For all her faults, perhaps her greatest fault, she loves easily but hers is genuine. She's very bad at pretending to like people. It's Taro's fault. It's one of the things Anne liked about her.

"Now you, look bored."

The drawl comes from her right and she looks away from Shindo, who she thinks she might hate just a little bit, to see the man standing next to her. Blond hair, pale eyes that peer at her through thin glasses. There's something about him that's familiar. There's something familiar about a lot of people here, even if she doesn't remember all of them.

"Bored?" she repeats, her mouth twitching. She takes a drink from the punch, trying not to hunch in on herself. Trying to seem less like what she is. "Nope. Not bored. Like, two inches from losing my absolute shit."

The man looked like he had no idea what to say to that. He was pretty young, early twenties perhaps. The way he held himself was familiar. Not dangerous but… staged. River's brows furrowed ever so slightly. He was slumped ever so slightly, so his height was less intimidating.

"Really?" he said at last.

"Yep. I seriously hate this much attention. It makes me nervous. And, I like dressing up, a lot, but none of my friends are here for me to goof off with," she elaborated. "This is going to be the worst part of my career."

"That's very honest," he says, and its only then that River realizes she might have been over sharing.

She bows her head sheepishly. "I'm not too good at lying." Weird, considering who she's been. She never had been. She could hide things, sure, but lying? She didn't see a point to it. Still doesn't. Anne always scolded her for being too candid. "And there's no need to lie about that. I hate crowds, big deal."

Of course, Anna was a mob boss and so her morals were about as skewed at River's own.

"What do you think of lying?" the stranger asks, and she finds herself answering him a bit more honestly than she'd intended.

"It's really not worth it. The truth comes out eventually. I get panicky sometimes and I lie then but that's because of the Rotary Club."

He looks at her, his brows drawn together and Rivers wants to smack herself for bringing up such a detail. She is getting by by being vague and ignoring what she had been.

"What's that?" he asks.

"It's uh. You know I have no clue? But I was in a class one day right? And the teacher had them in to teach us some kind of lesson, I don't remember what it was for but they asked, 'if there's a big project due and you didn't do it, but your brother took the same class the year before and offers to let you turn in his, would you?'," she taps her fingers against her glass. "You know the correct answer, of course."

"You shouldn't turn it in under your name," the stranger says, and River nods.

"Yep. That's what this lady wanted to hear. And that's what most of my classmates said. I told her that yes, I would. I even explained that it's because in society the pressure to perform well, no matter the circumstances, is huge. Kids are taught that doing well is more important that anything, their health, their well being, their morals," she shrugged. "She didn't like that answer, and spend ten minutes screaming in my face in front of my classmates, telling me about how that was wrong, and cheating, and I should have just told the teacher the truth. She didn't know that I was actually do that that year, because for my BMZ course we were supposed to collect samples of local flora and make a scrap book. I didn't have a way to get out of town, so I couldn't do it, so I didn't. She only stopped yelling when one of my classmates stepped in. But, she taught me that giving people the answer they want get's you in less trouble so… Sorry, that was way more information than you wanted," River shook her hands in front of her, smiling awkwardly at the poor guy.

"It's fine," he shakes his head, looks at her through his glasses, his gaze unreadable.

"What's your name?" he asks.

"Rive-er, Sentinel. I'm Wizards intern. And you are?"

"Shin Nemoto," he introduces, offering her his hand. River takes it. The name rings a bell. She feels like she's been forgetting a lot lately, about this world that she's been thrust in.

"Nice to meet you," she smiles at him. Her phone goes off.

She glances at it and her face falls.

 **Midoriya has dropped a pin.**

She hadn't even known Midoriya had her phone number.


	15. Kill Your Heroes

River says nothing to no one. She doesn't tell Wizard, she doesn't tell Shindo, she doesn't Shin Nemoto, she just shoved her phone into her bra and takes off at a run in fancy heels that she loves but can fight in. The whole outfit is utterly impractical but she doesn't have time to go back to Wizardry. She's already in the middle of Hosu, and an explosion sounds outside almost as soon as she's left the party. She pulls a hair tie she's hidden under the black glove and ties her hair back.

She takes the streets at a run. Sheds her shoes and sprints into the streets, the opposite direction as the people who run from the monster. Her phone vibrates between her boobs, ringing. Probably Wizard. She doesn't stop to check. She just runs, towards where Midoriya has called for her help.

Not hers, particularly, anyone would do but it's her that he'll get. Her and Todoroki.

She rounds the block and the explosions fade from her ears. Wizard would have probably taken her and Shindo out with him to try and play search and rescue with the rest of them on his heels. But, she had other things to do. The civilian's could deal with it, Wizard had it covered, she was going to help her friend.

The alley is dirty, dark, and smells like blood when she darts into it, her bare feet covered in scars long healed. She sees is, the fire, the light, the smoke, a flash of ice and the gleam of a blade. Three bodies on the ground, one still standing and the fifth in the air, a long knife in hand. Not a knife, a sword.

River throws herself in the air, solidifying it under her feet and drives her heel into the side of the hero killer's face. The sword goes flying. So does he. He hits the wall of the building and goes tumbling down while River lands gracefully, her long red skirts swirling around her leg. She catches the katana in one hand, standing tall.

Midoriya stands slowly, picking himself up and staring at her with his mouth open. Todoroki is in a similar state. She can't see Native or Iida, so she doesn't know what they think. She spins the sword in her hand.

"You should really take better care of your weapons. Your life depends on them, and you let them get so chipped and damaged?"

Her eyes don't stray from Stain even as he picks himself up. His red eyes are wild, intense, flying from one person to the other before they settle on her. A piranha. Instead of teeth he is covered in knives. Even outside of the sheaths she can see the small indents in his clothes where he's hiding even more. The red scarf flutters in the breeze kicked up by the Nomu.

"You guys," she lifts her voice so it carries, "Grab Native and Iida and run, okay?"

"What?" Midoriya squawks, "We're not leaving you here alone! You can't take him, he's too strong."

"It's okay," her voice is steady. She lifts a hand, palm facing the pair of them and steps between the quartet and Stain. "I won't let him pass me. I'm the Sentinel, now, that's what it means. An unwavering protector."

The words are pretty. They feel strange in her mouth.

Stain scoffs at her.

"You," he hisses under his breath. "Just another fake."

River doesn't draw away or flinch, but her muscles tense. Taro's power thrums under her skin, like blood long spilt and dried and washed away.

"The boy is genuine," he pulls out another knife and River realizes that she's better with short blades than long ones, and he is good with both. He throws a knife in the air, and while she lifts her head to see it Iida cries out. A blade has sunk into his hands. River forces herself to pay more attention. "He is worthy of letting live. But you… I can see what you are. The look in your eyes-"

Her breath catches. Her yellow eyes grow wide.

"-You're just a scorpion surrounded by frogs. Your nature is to kill, yet you stand before me and say you will protect? You're just another fake. And I will kill you!"

He moves at her. He's fast.

River is faster.

She catches his blow against the hilt of the katana, shoving hard against him. He comes to stab her from the left and she steps right and smash her forehead against his teeth. He backs off momentarily and she takes the time to scream at her classmates.

"Go already damn it!"

He comes in again. River stabs the sword into the ground, steps to his side and steals a knife from his hip. She flicks it open and in one smooth move she drives it into his thigh and twists in front of him while he tries to spin to attack her. He swings at her and the dance begins.

Two of them, red and yellow and black. She drives the blade into her dress and pulls down and ducks an attack in the same fluid motion, splitting her skirt straight down. Her right leg is bared in the night, but the chill doesn't matter.

She can't think of what her eyes look like that Stain could see into her very soul with one glance. She can't, she won't, and she really doesn't want to know. What does she look like, that he knew her nature with one look at her face?

He keeps switching tactics, trying to pass her by, trying to drive his knife into her guts or just graze her. Each attack he makes opens him up for five more. He is deadly. She can tell, he's been trained to kill. For years. How many? A decade? Two? By who?

It doesn't matter.

The boys don't run but Todoroki stays dead still. Midoriya beats his hands against the wall she put up when she vowed not to let Stain pass.

 _What do promises mean to killers?_

She steps into a strike straight at her, moving on the outside of Stains arm. He over extends himself trying to catch up and is knocked off balance. She catching his elbow, plants her arm and snaps his arm like a twig. She pulls her arm back, adjusts her grip a half foot down to his forearm and strikes his elbow so hard it bends inwards with a sickening crack. Blood drips down from further up, his bone pressing through skin.

He comes at her with another katana, using his unbroken arm. Another knife finds its way into his teeth.

Sparks fly when they collide, her stolen knife screeches when she shoves it along the jagged length of the katana. The long blade cracks again in places and tiny shards of metal fall to the ground.

It gets her close enough to grab his hand around the hilt and twist. Two pops, she squeezes and feels the bone give way under her grip until she might as well be holding a bag of Lincoln logs. The blade goes down. Her feet leave the earth.

Stain has managed to do her work for her, with the hilt between his teeth.

Her knee lifts at the same time both fists come down, clasped, on top of his head. It's not hard enough to shatter his teeth or crush his skull. Nonetheless he falls limply to the ground.

River stands above him.

It would be so easy to lean down and slit him, from one ear to the other, and end the whole League of Villains mess early. Or at least set things back a while. Keep Dabi and Jin from getting involved in any case, without his fancy speech.

But, Todoroki is watching her.

And he is her friend, whom she loves so dearly.

She lets the knife clatter to the ground.

The whole thing takes minutes, and by the time she turns to the boys and lets the wall drop Iida is only just standing up on shaky legs. He moves to pull the knife out before River grabs his wrist.

"Don't," she scolds, "you'll make it worse. You could cut it deeper, and you'll bleed more. Leave the knife where it is, and elevate your arm."

He stares at her, his eyes so wide and wondrous that she wants to pull away. "River…" he breaths her name.

"That was amazing," Midoriya appears at her side. His green eyes are wide but there is something else to them. Something calculating. "You took him down without a scratch, and barely using your quirk too."

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Todoroki asks, joining the fray. "I knew you were strong, but that was insane."

"Ah-ha, my dad taught me most of it," she admits. She stands in the darkness, her skirt fluttering around her legs and she wants to rip it away. Red, red, red, like the name she wants to forget. She pulls her phone out, ignored the way the boys look away when she reaches down her shirt and run off to find some ropes.

There's four missed calls and more texts than she feels like reading from Wizard. She assumes its him, in any case.

 **Unknown : where did you go?**

 **Unknown: Somethins is happening come back right now**

 **Unknown: where are you?**

 **Unknown : you have to come back**

 **Unknown: The city is under attack get back to the agency**

 **Unknown : I need you to asnder the phone.**

 **River : Sorry, I found and I'm taking some people to the hospital**

"I'm gonna be in so much trouble," she mutters, but she's still smiling.

"River?" Iida came up to her.

"Hey," she smiles at him. "You're looking better. I figured you'd do something like come out here looking for Stain, after your brother."

"What did he mean?" Iida asks, "About your eyes?"

River's smile freezes on her face.

"I… I guess I just look like a scorpion, is all."

 _A scorpion surrounded by frogs._

River tries to focus on whatever is going on around her as the boys tie up Stain but her mind is elsewhere and her instincts are on alert. The eyes on her have multiplied, she realizes. Her watches have multiplied and they have seen her fight. They have seen her break a man by his arms and drive his jaw so hard a normal man would have broken entirely.

Midoriya and Todoroki tie him up with conveniently placed rope while River does her best to patch up Native and Iida. She tears her pretty dress, the cleanest thing in the alley, and stuffs it partially into Iida's impaled hand, ignoring his hiss. She repeats it with his shoulder, doing her best to remember what had been done to her before she had healed on the fly.

Native receives the same treatment, blocking the blood flow. He was much less injured. It was unfortunate that he was so useless, and children had to save him.

River shakes her head to rid herself of the thought and helps the boys get Stain out to the street. They manage to get out to the sidewalk before a group of brightly dressed individuals appear. Pro heroes, too late to save the day. Was it any wonder that Midoriya was the way he was?

She turns around and finds Iida bowed at the middle towards her.

"I'm sorry," he says, "You all were put at risk, and injured, because of me."

"No, I'm sorry too," Midoriya interrupts, "I'm supposed to be your friend, but I didn't notice that you were so upset at all."

"Don't apologize," River chides, her heart softening towards him just a little. "Grief does things to people. We're cool."

"Get it together," Todoroki adds. "You're the class rep aren't you?"

"Yes," Iida agrees, and finally stands again. The darkness in his eyes has faded.

She very intentionally doesn't look up at the roof tops around them. She's being watched. They don't need to know that she knows that they're there.

She'll deal with later.

Something else comes from the sky, a beast with wings, Midoriya's childhood bully.

A Nomu.

She lifted her hand, power in her fingertips but it dives too soon, and she hesitates, again ( _Why why why I've never hesitated before-)_ screaming to the ground too quick. One of the pros puts himself in front of her and she wants to scream, she can't see so she can't protect them but it's over and the Nomu snatches Midoriya and launches itself, half blind and mad with pain, into the sky.

River's blood runs cold.

She'd forgotten. Forgotten that Stain had taken it down with a hidden knife and in her haste she'd broken both of his arms and-

That doesn't stop him.

Blood splatters in the Nomu's wake and Stain _moves_.

She can see, just for those few seconds, the kind of hero Stain would have been. Fast, ruthless, willing to do whatever he had to to protect the innocent. Even fight with a shattered hand and an arm broken in two places.

The Nomu falls to the ground, paralyzed and Stain drives the spike in his boot into its head, straight into the exposed brain. It splatters across the ground, cerebral fluid and blood both smearing over concrete. His arm hangs at his side, but she can see, the other one with the broken hand holds Midoriya's before setting him on the concrete, fingers in his hair. Keeping him down, protecting him.

Stain snarls his codes at the Nomu as Endeavor rounds the corner, all fire and fury simmering under his pale eyes. River steps closer to Todoroki.

She watches him stand and for an instant she wonders if this was how she had looked when she was younger. Fight and killing for someone who had all of her heart.

A waves washes over her and everyone who is not River freezes on the spot.

"You fake."

The mask slips off of his face, revealing a hole where a nose should have been. His teeth are bared at the world.

"If I don't fix it- These streets will run with the blood of hypocrites! Hero! I will reclaim that word! Come on, just try and stop me you fakes! There' is only one man I will let me, only one true hero. All Might is worthy!"

They are frozen. Standing still, unable to move, even Endeavor stands stock still. Two of the heroes around her collapse to the ground. Stain keeps walking. A knife appears in his uninjured hand. The world narrows until there is only him, only him and the terrible red wind that seeps into her skin.

River alone moves. Crosses the earth in a heart beat. She doesn't use her quirk, can't if she wants to avoid trouble, so she settles for taking a stab directly in her ribs and kicks him as hard as she can in his own. She feels them give way and break. Heat licks at her back and she lunges sideways, just in time to avoid a wall of fire that eats Stain where he stands.

She doesn't wait for him to recover from it before she lands another kick to the back of his skull, sending him flying forwards. His knife clatters to the ground but he won't go down and the air is still suffocating.

Ice erupts around his legs, crawls up his body until only his head is left.

River looks over her shoulder right as the spell is broken. It isn't Endeavor who threw fire after it. It's Todoroki who stands, his hand outstretched, while even his father is still motionless.

The red moon fades and they stand, the two of them alone responsible for his downfall.

River let's out a soft breath and turns her smile to Todoroki, pulling the knife out of her side with a gruesome squelch. One of the pro's, she has no clue what their name is, scrambles forwards at last.

"Don't! You'll bleed out!"

"Huh? No, its fine," she pulls the fabric of her dress, now extra red, apart to reveal the skin pulling itself back together. "I won't even have blood loss."

Nevertheless, the ambulance took her away along with the boys to the hospital, which was crowded with people injured during the Nomu attack. River sort of just sat there, listening to the EMT's talk to the boys, taking their blood pressure, minding their injuries. They even give River an irritatingly thorough inspection, despite the fact that she's fine.

As they haul three boys, one girl, and a serial killer to the nearest hospital three people disappear into the shadows.

* * *

The next morning dawns bright and filled with sunlight. River leaves her hospital room and crosses the hallway to enter the one being shared by the three boys. They were already up, all of them in hospital gowns. River couldn't imagine why the doctors had wanted her overnight, unless they thought she was in shock, but they had had her stay and River had agreed, with only a little fuss. She couldn't rightly tell them that such a small event would put her into shock.

 _But hadn't it?_ A small voice whispered, one that sounded suspiciously like Stain. _Hadn't it, little scorpion?_

River stamps that voice down.

"Hey guys," she shuts the door after her. "How you boys holding up?"

The sunlight that streams through the window shines softly off of Todoroki's hair, illuminating the unscarred half of his face. He looks over at her when she speaks and smiles, a phantom thing that warms her from the inside. Midoriya sits up quickly and Iida looks her way too, grabbing his glasses.

"River! Hey, how are you?" Midoriya asks quickly. "I mean I know that you're not hurt but-"

"I'm fine," she deflects quickly, ignoring the echo in the back of her mind. "And I asked you first."

"Oh, I'm okay. My leg was the worst thing, but the doctors think I'll be fine in a few more days. They're going to keep me under observation."

She looks to Iida, who lifts his shoulders a little. "My arms were hurt worst. We're still waiting for some test results."

"I'm about the same," Todoroki lifts his left arm for her to see. "I didn't get as beat up, but I'm mostly long range."

"Good," River sits on the free bed, tucking her legs under her with the hospital gown. Why didn't hospitals ever have pants?

"River…" she looks at Midoriya, who's staring at her intently. "I wanna ask, why you didn't use your quirk in that fight except to keep us away. Winning would have easier. And, how did you get so good at fighting? You're better than some of the pro's, and I don't think I've ever even see you seriously try. On top of that your quirk itself could be really powerful but you won't rely on it at all and it doesn't make much sense. How did you get it that way, what were your parent's quirks?"

River watched with vague amusement as Midoriya spirals into mumbled questions and inquiries.

"Well," she says at last, "I guess it's because it's not really my quirk."

That silences him quickly.

"What?"

River takes a breath and steels herself. She's never told anyone anything about her power, and now…

"It's not mine. My parents didn't have quirks, and neither did i. None of us were born with them."

"But you said you got your quirk from your dad," Todoroki argues, frowning at her.

"I know. And I did. But not from, not from the _father_ I was born to. I got my quirk from Taro, and he's my real dad, even if I don't share his blood. See," she laces her fingers in front of her and stretches her senses, trying to make sure no one else is close enough to overhear. "This quirk isn't like any normal one. It's passed from one person to the next when one dies. My dad had it, and when he died it came to me," she doesn't tell them the circumstances. Doesn't point out what Todoroki and Midoriya know the conditions of her healing factor. They're smart. She can see the exact moment when understanding sets into Midoriya's brain. His shoulders draw up, he breaths in sharply and-

The door opens.

Gran Torino, Manuel, and Wizard all file in. River can't find it in herself to be ashamed when she looks at Wizard, who is uncharacteristically silent.

They're all in trouble.

She takes a breath and leans back on her hands, waiting for the big dog.

* * *

Wizard is silent on the way back, the drive awkward as they pass by semi-destroyed streets. River watches the world pass them by, dressed in borrowed sweats and one of Todoroki's spare shirts. Her own clothes are still at Wizardry.

Finally they pull into an underground lot across the street from Wizardry. Wizard turns the car keys but makes no move to get out.

"I couldn't say this in the hospital," Wizard begins. Stops. River sits there, staring at him. What was he talking about? The hospital had gone about the same way it had in the show. The dog let Endeavor take the credit for the capture, Todoroki almost lost it when they were getting in trouble for trying to help.

"Say what?" she prompted.

"Say- never mind," he finally shakes his head. "You were reckless and foolish, you didn't even tell anyone where you were going. Did it never occur to you that one of us could have helped? You were in a room full of pro heroes."

River's lips thinned into a line. "You're all rescue heroes. You don't seem like a fighter. That's why I came here in the first place."

Wizard snorted and finally opened the door. "Let's go."

He leads her out and River followed, wondering just what he'd meant to say. What he'd stopped himself from saying. They follow a small hallway under the staircases to the upper floors of the parking garage. It emptied out into the underground of Wizardry. Wizard doesn't lead her to her borrowed room, or to the common areas up above. He leads her to a gym.

River comes to a stop and Wizard claps her on the shoulder and takes a few steps away.

"Okay," he says at last. "Try and hit me."

River rolls her eyes. Tries to role her eyes. They don't move. They don't move and when she tries to lift her fist her fingers don't so much as twitch. Her feet are planted, her body is frozen. She _can't move_.

She can't even breath. She can't hear her pulse that should be pounding in her ears.

A thin red line appears on Wizard's neck. A warning.

The paralysis fades. Wizard touches his neck, a new light in his eyes.

"So you can use your quirk without pointing at anything."

River sucks in sharp breaths, her heart exploding in her chest. Her head starts to hurt.

"What- the _fuck_!"

"I see," he says at length. "So you didn't do that much research before coming here. Did you do it for the hero killer?"

River narrows her eyes at him. The sparkles are gone, the easy personality has vanished.

"I see. So you did. Then, do you know the name of my quirk?"

"Airlock," she answers automatically. "You touch things and they stop moving."

"Right. I touch things and they stop moving. Including people. Wouldn't that have been useful, against someone as quick as the hero killer?"

River wants to snap at him that it hadn't mattered. That she had taken care of everything, that it hadn't even been that hard. Instead she stands still, frowning deeply at him.

"My point is," he says at last, "That other people can help you. If you let them."

River almost scoffs. Instead she bows her head, closes her eyes.

Wizard touches her shoulder again. "Next time, remember this okay?"

River just nods. Let's Wizard think that she's paying that much attention, that she believes him but all she can think of is the red line on his neck. She didn't act in defense, she acted in a warning to kill him. Her instinctive reaction was to attack. Not his arms or his legs but his throat.

It was her nature to kill.

Wizard gives her a light shove.

"Come on, you worried Shindo when you disappeared last night. And everyone else, too."

River nods for the millionth time and follows him along, subdued for all that she was a victor.


	16. Interlude

**A lot of you probably already know Aesop's fable, the Scorpion and the Frog. I've also put here a couple of Native American myths. The first one was credited to the Chinook people, and to my knowledge the second one is Shoshone in origin. The third** **and the last one is from the Akan people, who are African not Native American.** **If any of you know more specifics than that, or if I'm wrong, please let me know!**

* * *

 _One day, Frog was sitting by the riverbank when Scorpion came up to him._

 _"_ _Frog," said Scorpion, "I cannot swim across this river. Will you carry me across?"_

 _Frog pondered a moment. "How do I know you won't sting me?" Frog asked._

 _"_ _If I did, I would drown," replied Scorpion._

 _As this was a good answer, Frog agreed to carry Scorpion across._

 _Scorpion climbed onto Frog's back, and Frog began swimming across the swift river._

 _When Frog reached the middle the of river, Scorpion lashed out and stung Frog._

 _The poison quickly spread through Frog's body._

 _As the two began to sink, Frog asked, "Why did you sting me?"_

 _"_ _It is my nature," Scorpion replied._

* * *

"Aestus cruentus adventus est et ubique carmen pudicitiae submersa est. Quod maxime ab omni opinione, cum pessimus, Plena sunt flagranti studio."

Ray looked at Takeshi from where he was sitting on the window between the kitchen and the living room. Clean dishes sit dried in the slots. No one's gotten them put away yet.

"I thought you spoke Japanese and English," he said, leg swinging lightly. Takeshi stood in the corner of the living room, holding a book open in front of him. The cover is in Japanese, which does little to explain the latin.

"It's just something I was thinking of," he says simply.

"What does it mean?" Ray finally asks, humoring him. A small smile flashed across his face.

"It's the 'Second Coming' by Yeats. In English it translates to, 'The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere. The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst, are full of passionate intensity'."

"We're bringing the end to River, not to the world. How are those related?" he almost dreaded the answer.

But, Takeshi doesn't say something cryptic or vague like he expected.

"It reminds me of her, is all."

There was no guessing who 'her' was referring to. There was only one her that they were there for. That they were all there for. Red River Kelly.

"They're supposed to be back by now. Have you heard from them?"

Ray looks away from Takeshi, and finds April standing in the hallway that leads to the two bedrooms. April Huntington is by far the oldest of them. At 76 they weren't even sure that she would survive the trip from one world to the next. She's not much of a grandmother, even if she looks like one with her white hair curled tight against her head and her shoulders hunched under the weight of years. Wrinkles almost obscure her brown eyes.

She, like him, is American. Takeshi is Japanese, though he keeps his hair dyed blond. He's shorter than Ray, only about five and a half feet, maybe less, but he's a vicious fighter, much better than Ray might ever be.

"Serenity and Jack are still on watch. Maggie went to switch with Jack, he should be back in ten minutes," Takeshi produced a pocket watch from somewhere. He's one big contradiction of strereotypes and styles and it throws Ray off every couple of days when he matches basketball shorts and a button up, blasts hip hop while reading Heaney.

"And Chick?" April asks.

"Has arrived!" As if summoned by her name Chick kicks the door open, walking in with her arms full of groceries. Charlotte Bradshaw is about the smallest person that Ray has ever met, and its no surprise that she's called 'chick' by everyone who knows her. She's a head of black curls, brown eyes that miss nothing and a smile that has never once reached them.

A band of black lace wraps around her wrist.

"Here, take these," she dumps the groceries, mostly canned food, into Rays arms without any other real warning. Ray almost falls flat on his face as the weight drags him straight off of his perch.

"Hey!" he objects, stumbling onto his feet. "Anyone ever tell you that you're rude?" he frowned up at her. She smiles at him, unrepentant, and goes down the hall to shut herself in the girl's bedroom.

Ray sighs to himself and goes to start putting things away. Everyone would be much healthier if they got fresh veggies and fruits, and ate more variety than what they've been getting. But, they're on a budget, and Ray doesn't want to know where all of their funds are even coming from these days.

So he settles on sorting between canned apricots and green beans and canned chicken. He almost throws up at the sight. Poultry is not meant to be in a can.

Ever.

Ray sucks it up and puts the cans in the cupboard while April goes back to her painting and Takeshi returns to his book. In a few hours it'll be his turn to relieve Serenity, and watch over River.

His hand tighten on the can.

How could someone, something, like her do that? Walk around and call herself a hero, go to school and stand to be in the same room as people who have no idea what kind of murderous, dangerous, sociopathic-

He shakes his head quickly. He doesn't have time to go down that rabbit hole right now. They're busy for today.

* * *

 _In the beginning, death did not exist._

 _Everyone stayed alive until there were so many people that there wasn't room for anyone else. The chiefs held a council to determine what to do. One man arose and said that it would be good to have the people die and be gone for a little while, and then to return. As soon as he sat down Coyote jumped up and said that people ought to die forever because there was not enough food or room for everyone to live forever. The other men objected, saying that there would be no more happiness in the world if their loved ones died._

 _All except Coyote decided to have the people die and be gone for a little while, and then to come back to life._

 _After the council, the medicine men built a large grass house facing the east. They gathered the men of the tribe and told them that the people who died would come to the medicine house and then be restored to life. The chief medicine man said that he would put a large white and black eagle feather on top of the grass house. When the feather became bloody and fell over, the people would know that someone had died. Then all of the medicine men would come to the grass house and sing a song that would call the spirit of the dead, which rode upon the wind, to the grass house. When the spirit came to the house they would restore it to life again. All of the people were glad about these rules regarding death, for they were scared for the dead._

 _After a time they saw the eagle feather turn bloody and fall and they knew that someone had died. The medicine men assembled in the grass house and sang for the spirit of the dead to come to them. In about ten days a whirlwind blew from the west, circled the grass house, and finally entered through the entrance in the east. From the whirlwind appeared a handsome young man who had been murdered by another tribe. All of the people saw him and rejoiced except Coyote, who was displeased because his rules were not carried out. In a short time the feather became bloody and fell again._

 _Coyote saw it and at once went to the grass house. He took his seat near the door and sat with the singers for many days. When at last he heard the whirlwind coming he closed the door before the whirlwind could enter. The spirit in the whirlwind passed on by. Coyote thus introduced the idea of permanent death and people from that time on grieved about the dead and were unhappy. Now whenever any one meets a whirlwind or hears the wind whistle he says: "There is some one wandering about." Ever since Coyote closed the door the spirits of the dead have wandered over the earth, trying to find some place to go, until at last they find the road to spirit land._

 _After this day, Coyote ran away and never came back for he was afraid of what he had done. He always looked over his shoulder, afraid that someone was pursuing him. Since then he has been starving because no one will give him anything to eat._

* * *

"I feel like an idiot," Chick says blandly.

Serenity, who is the meanest and most extra person she had ever had the displeasure of encountering in her life, shoots her a hard glower.

"We're supposed to be a team, it only makes sense. Besides, it's a double meaning," she sniffs at Chick, her nose in the air, as if Chick is too stupid to know the meaning in what she's wearing. Chick stuffs her instinctive urge to strangle her down. She tugs at the white lace sleeves that cover the tattoo on her wrist, scowling.

"I don't see why I have to dress like this. You I get, the White Widow or whatever-"

" _Spectra_ ," Serenity emphasizes. "I'm Spectra. And you're Ash."

"If I'm Ash shouldn't I be dressed up like a cigarette or something? Not, this," she waves her hands down at the tight lace dress she's been stuffed into. She get's the symbolism, really she does. Going off to kill a Black Lace Death Dealer, the best of the best, dressed up in white lace. Shit, white even means 'death' in japan. But, it doesn't work for her. The symbolism doesn't matter. The pretty clothes, the choking hand of grief in her throat, none of that matters.

Only the death matters now.

Only River's death matters now.

"Fine," Serenity snaps at her. "Wear what you want, just make sure its white. All white."

Chick rolls her eyes. "Whatever you say," she says, and quickly strips herself of the white lace dress that hangs to her knees. She shucks it into the corner, looking for her regular clothes. "I don't like leaving the guys to watch her alone," she says.

"Takeshi is competent."

"Yeah, but Ray… the guys a nurse. Why is he even here?"

"Don't ask me. I'm not the one who picked the team out," Serenity tucks her brown hair behind her ear with the three fingers on her left hand. A silver elf ear cuff catches in the light, intricacies shining. Chick wonders, not for the first time, what she had lost that had put her on the same path that they all walked. What had River done to her, that she would leave her world behind in pursuit of vengeance at the call of a woman half forgotten by the world?

Takeshi, April, Ray, Maggie and Jack. Everyone has a reason they were chosen, and none were chosen lightly. Summoned for the fire in their hearts and the glass in their ribs, drawn by the tears shed in persuit of-

Of what? Of who?

Chick wants to understand, but she knows better.

They are not together because they are friends.

They are not bound together by kindness or compassion, or comradery.

They are tied to one another in bonds of pain and anger and a hate that overrides all else, each and every one of them.

River had stolen from Chick the most important person in her life. She had reigned death and destruction on a little white church tucked into mossy Maryland, stained steeples with copper and iron and left carnage in her wake with those two boys flanking her. The boys were dead now, and in any case that hadn't been the ones who's really finished the fight. A gun couldn't do what she did. A knife in the hands of a mortal man was incapable of such straight edges.

But it would be a gun, and a bullet made by mortal men that would end her life.

Chick would make sure of it.

She pulled on regular clothes, black pants and a grey shirt, and walked out of the cramped little room she shared with April, Maggie, and Serenity, and walked out into the city. Hosu was only a bullet train away.

* * *

 _Long ago, when man was newly come into the world, there were days when he was the happiest creature of all. Those were the days when spring brushed across the willow tails, or when his children ripened with the blueberries in the sun of summer, or when the goldenrod bloomed in the autumn haze._

 _But always the mists of autumn evenings grew more chill, and the sun's strokes grew shorter. Then man saw winter moving near, and he became fearful and unhappy. He was afraid for his children, and for the grandfathers and grandmothers who carried in their heads the sacred tales of the tribe. Many of these, young and old, would die in the long, ice-bitter months of winter._

 _Coyote, like the rest of the People, had no need for fire. So he seldom concerned himself with it, until one spring day when he was passing a human village. There the women were singing a song of mourning for the babies and the old ones who had died in the winter. Their voices moaned like the west wind through a buffalo skull, prickling the hairs on Coyote's neck._

 _"Feel how the sun is now warm on our backs," one of the men was saying. "Feel how it warms the earth and makes these stones hot to the touch. If only we could have had a small piece of the sun in our teepees during the winter."_

 _Coyote, overhearing this, felt sorry for the men and women. He also felt that there was something he could do to help them. He knew of a faraway mountain-top where the three Fire Beings lived. These Beings kept fire to themselves, guarding it carefully for fear that man might somehow acquire it and become as strong as they. Coyote saw that he could do a good turn for man at the expense of these selfish Fire Beings._

 _So Coyote went to the mountain of the Fire Beings and crept to its top, to watch the way that the Beings guarded their fire. As he came near, the Beings leaped to their feet and gazed searchingly round their camp. Their eyes glinted like bloodstones, and their hands were clawed like the talons of the great black vulture._

 _"What's that? What's that I hear?" hissed one of the Beings._

 _"A thief, skulking in the bushes!" screeched another._

 _The third looked more closely, and saw Coyote. But he had gone to the mountain-top on all fours, so the Being thought she saw only an ordinary coyote slinking among the trees._

 _"It is no one, it is nothing!" she cried, and the other two looked where she pointed and also saw only a grey coyote. They sat down again by their fire and paid Coyote no more attention._

 _So he watched all day and night as the Fire Beings guarded their fire. He saw how they fed it pine cones and dry branches from the sycamore trees. He saw how they stamped furiously on runaway rivulets of flame that sometimes nibbled outwards on edges of dry grass. He saw also how, at night, the Beings took turns to sit by the fire. Two would sleep while one was on guard; and at certain times the Being by the fire would get up and go into their teepee, and another would come out to sit by the fire._

 _Coyote saw that the Beings were always jealously watchful of their fire except during one part of the day. That was in the earliest morning, when the first winds of dawn arose on the mountains. Then the Being by the fire would hurry, shivering, into the teepee calling, "Sister, sister, go out and watch the fire." But the next Being would always be slow to go out for her turn, her head spinning with sleep and the thin dreams of dawn._

 _Coyote, seeing all this, went down the mountain and spoke to some of his friends among the People. He told them of hairless man, fearing the cold and death of winter. And he told them of the Fire Beings, and the warmth and brightness of the flame. They all agreed that man should have fire, and they all promised to help Coyote's undertaking._

 _Then Coyote sped again to the mountain-top. Again the Fire Beings leaped up when he came close, and one cried out, "What's that? A thief, a thief!"_

 _But again the others looked closely, and saw only a grey coyote hunting among the bushes. So they sat down again and paid him no more attention._

 _Coyote waited through the day, and watched as night fell and two of the Beings went off to the teepee to sleep. He watched as they changed over at certain times all the night long, until at last the dawn winds rose._

 _Then the Being on guard called, "Sister, sister, get up and watch the fire."_

 _And the Being whose turn it was climbed slow and sleepy from her bed, saying, "Yes, yes, I am coming. Do not shout so."_

 _But before she could come out of the teepee, Coyote lunged from the bushes, snatched up a glowing portion of fire, and sprang away down the mountainside._

 _Screaming, the Fire Beings flew after him. Swift as Coyote ran, they caught up with him, and one of them reached out a clutching hand. Her fingers touched only the tip of the tail, but the touch was enough to turn the hairs white, and coyote tail-tips are white still. Coyote shouted, and flung the fire away from him. But the others of the People had gathered at the mountain's foot, in case they were needed. Squirrel saw the fire falling, and caught it, putting it on her back and fleeing away through the tree-tops. The fire scorched her back so painfully that her tail curled up and back, as squirrels' tails still do today._

 _The Fire Beings then pursued Squirrel, who threw the fire to Chipmunk. Chattering with fear, Chipmunk stood still as if rooted until the Beings were almost upon her. Then, as she turned to run, one Being clawed at her, tearing down the length of her back and leaving three stripes that are to be seen on chipmunks' backs even today. Chipmunk threw the fire to Frog, and the Beings turned towards him. One of the Beings grasped his tail, but Frog gave a mighty leap and tore himself free, leaving his tail behind in the Being's hand-which is why frogs have had no tails ever since._

 _As the Beings came after him again, Frog flung the fire on to Wood. And Wood swallowed it._

 _The Fire Beings gathered round, but they did not know how to get the fire out of Wood. They promised it gifts, sang to it and shouted at it. They twisted it and struck it and tore it with their knives. But Wood did not give up the fire. In the end, defeated, the Beings went back to their mountain-top and left the People alone._

 _But Coyote knew how to get fire out of Wood. And he went to the village of men and showed them how. He showed them the trick of rubbing two dry sticks together, and the trick of spinning a sharpened stick in a hole made in another piece of wood. So man was from then on warm and safe through the killing cold of winter._

* * *

"I don't know what to think of your girl."

Aizawa looked away from his coffee cup to the video displaying a shadowed face. Dark hood, pale skin, and eyes that flickered darkness across the monitors. His mouth is drawn in a black line, his cheeks are shallowed and the computer threatens to glitch whenever he's on it.

"She's not my girl."

"She's your student, same thing. Like, I see where you're getting it, Eraser, but she hasn't done anything. The closest she got to killing someone was breaking Stain's bones. I sent you the vid, yeah?"

"Three different times, Silence. I saw the video. And you saw how she fights."

"Like an assassin, yeah. And you run around with caltraps and a magic scarf, that doesn't make you a ninja. I don't think she's a bad kid. You did say she tried to save you at the USJ."

"She shouldn't have."

"Uh huh."

Aizawa glared at the screen. Silence grinned with black teeth.

"You said you don't know what to think of her," he prompted, trying to get Silence back on track. Silence was a stealth hero unlike any other. With his Shade quirk he could be any shadow anywhere, dissolve into darkness and swim through solid mass, as long as there was a shadow on it. He was perfect for following someone, and he owed Aizawa about fifteen different favors. So getting him to stalk his student was one of the easiest things Aizawa had ever done.

"I did?"

"Yes, you did."

Unfortunately, Silence had did not match his name, and had the memory of a goldfish sometimes.

"Oh. Yeah, well, she seems like a nice girl. Got real worried about a kid at the hospital, ran off to help her friends, didn't really hurt anyone during the Sports Festival. You sure you oughtta be this suspicious of her?"

Aizawa frowned, looking away from Silence to another one of the three computer screens in front of him. The room was dark besides them, his bed messy in one corner and the little kitchenette hardly touched in the other.

"I don't know," he finally said, "It's like she came out of nowhere. There's a paper trail, but no one remembers her. Not her teachers or classmates or anyone from her home town. They don't even recognize her dad, and I can't find any records on her mom at all. That's not normal."

Silence scratched his cheek. "Have you thought to ask her?"

Aizawa didn't respond.

"You didn't," Silence said with surety. "Try. She seems pretty honest."

"She's hiding something," Aizawa insisted.

"You're her teacher. If she was willing to punch a Nomu for you, she might be willing to tell you the truth."

Aizawa didn't respond. He shut off the video and went back to work, leaving Silence to do his job.

* * *

 _There was once a African king who had the finest ram in the world._

 _When this ram happened to be grazing on Anansi's crops one day, Anansi threw a rock at it, hitting it between the eyes and killing it._

 _Anansi knew that the king would punish him for what he had done to the prize ram, and he immediately schemed how to get out of the situation. Needless to say, Anansi resorted to trickery as always._

 _Anansi went to sat under a tree to think of an escape when, all of a sudden, a nut fell and struck him on the head. Anansi immediately had an idea._

 _First, he took the dead ram and tied it to the nut tree. Then he went to a spider and told it of a wonderful tree laden with nuts._

 _The spider was delighted and immediately went to the tree. Anansi then went to the king and told him that the spider had evidently killed the prize ram; the ram was hanging from a tree where the spider was spinning webs. The king flew into a rage and demanded the death penalty for the spider._

 _The king thanked Anansi and offered him a great reward. Anansi returned to the spider and warned it of the king's wrath, crying out to the whole world that the spider had killed the ram. The spider was very confused._

 _Anansi told the spider to go to the king and plead for mercy, and perhaps the spider's life would be spared. Meanwhile, the king had gone home for lunch and told his wife what happened._

 _The wife just laughed and said, "Have you lost your mind? How on earth could a little spider make a thread strong enough to hold a ram? How in the world could that little spider hoist the ram up there? Don't you know, Anansi obviously killed your ram! By now you should know, he is a trickster!"._

 _The king was angry that he had been deceived and told his court to fetch Anansi immediately. When the king's men came for him, Anansi assumed that it was to bring him to the palace for his reward for turning in the spider. So Anansi went along willingly._

 _He walked into the palace as if he owned the place and then said to the king, "Well, what is my reward for the killer of your ram?"_

 _This enraged the king so much that he kicked Anansi very, very hard, splitting him into two pieces; he was no longer a man, but a spider with long legs._

* * *

River sits in the kitchen, a cup of yogurt open in front of her. Shindo is out with Wizard doing something or other, Chiroptera and Detox are in the gym, she has no idea where Beowulf is. Anansi finally shows himself, walking into the kitchen. The sound of the footsteps don't match his gate. The shadows do but the sound doesn't.

"You're giving me a headache," River complains lightly, shooting Anansi a half hearted frown.

He pauses at the refrigerator, looking over at her from under his hoodie. This close she can see the blackness in his eyes. Something about his face is … off. Too symmetrical, too perfect. It's unnatural and her instincts shout in the back of her mind.

Danger. Danger. Danger.

Like the red and black on a snake, a warning that doesn't make sense.

"What do you mean?" he asks. His voice isn't quite right either. Almost… synthetic, in quality.

"Whatever you're doing with your face and your legs," she clarifies, flapping her hand at him.

He stiffens, stares at her, and walks right back out, leaving. Without any food.

River watches him go, bewildered, and finishes her yogurt.

People are… weird.

Super powered people even more so than normal people.

River finishes her yogurt and tosses the cup before she grabbed a box of cereal, leaves the kitchen and walks down the hall, to Anansi's computer room. He spends more time there than anywhere else, she knows for certain. She had seen dust gathered under the door to his room. He's there, in front of the computers as it his habit.

She walks up next to him and offers him the box.

He looks at her out of the corner of his eye, distrustful.

"Come on," she prods, "You didn't get anything in there."

"So?" he challenges.

"So, you still gotta eat right?" She doesn't know why he was so weird, but something in her brain is trying to draw connections. The dots don't quite line up. But, she knows that she hit a nerve, and that really wasn't her intention. So she pushes the box closer, a sort of peace offering. Finally, Anansi takes it from her.

"Thanks," he says at last. Takes a breath. "Sorry, Sentinel."

River can't help but smile at the name. It's nice to hear. "You can just call me River, since I'm not in a suit or nothing."

Anansi nods, finally awarding her a smile. It fits well on his wide mouth, but it, like everything else, is just a little too perfect.

"When I'm not in a suit, you can call me Simon," he offers. River perks up when she hears the name.

"Are you American?" she asks quickly. Simon laughs.

"No, Russian. But I've been to America a couple of times. Where are you from?" he settles into the wide chair in front of the computers, spinning a little. The around him moves enough that she can feel it. A few more dots pop up around her brain.

"Oklahoma, but I've been other places too. New York, LA."

"Big cities. Oklahoma's pretty flat isn't it?"

"There's some hills, grass."

They dissolve into talking. About America, about Russia, about Japan. Anansi shares the cereal with her and while they talk they watch the monitors. Finally, River starts pointing to the screen, mocking fashion and making up conversations. Anansi is more than glad to join her, throwing his voice as they watch a couple break up and two strangers meet on a subway. The cleanup efforts are still underway in part of the city, they keep a vaguer eye on those.

River makes a platform and sits on the air, laughing and talking.

It's a good day, she decides, but the voice never leaves her head. _A scorpion surrounded by frogs._


	17. Inconsiquencial

**This ones kinda short, sorry guys!**

* * *

River is under no illusions that she is not a good person.

She knows all the shit she's done. It might be better if, maybe, she could regret killing all those people, but she can't. She won't.

All that being said, she can't help but think that Yo Shindo isn't a very nice person at all.

Sure, he smiles and asks questions and his nose is about as brown as it can get, but it's in his eyes. A darkness, a hidden depth, the truth beneath a pond lit with moon shine.

He makes River nervous and she does not care for that one bit.

Chiroptera walks ahead of them, leading the pair further down into the guts of what River understands now is not just a hero office, it is a bunker. River strolls beside Shindo, her hands clasped behind her back and her yellow eyes focused forwards. Her hair is tied back in a simple knot, red threading through platinum. She left her visor in her room and so her face is covered only by the bits of her costume that frame it into a deceptive heart.

Yes, River is not a good person but Shindo is tricky. Tricky. She doesn't know how much she likes it, but he hasn't been outwardly rude. So how could she tell him that she could see straight through him?

The truth lies in the eyes, and Shindo cannot hide the stony glint in his own, alight only when the wickedness in his humor awakens.

"Will you lie the whole time you're here?" River asks him so suddenly he almost trips. She peers at him out of the corner of her eye, watching emotions flash across his face before it settled into polite confusion. She is jealous of him.

River has spent her entire life killing, walking the shadows, dealing in the darkest parts of the world. Yet, hiding her truth has never come easily to her. She knows that she cannot lie, not well, so she does her best to avoid it. She deflects truth seekers and tells honest, unrelated things.

The best she can say is 'I'm not much good at offense', she can say 'my quirk unsuitable for combat'. They're lies but they are true to. They are true if she is intending on her opponent _living_.

In retrospect, it should have been a warning sign about their relationship that Carter never caught on to her history. That he did not ask about her scars or her habits, or the times she would change the subject as far from police, or military, or James Bond as she could.

It should have been a warning sign to her own heard that Gabe walked into the holding room after she told Jackie to shove his deal up his ass with signed papers and a uniform, if she wanted it.

"What do you mean?" he askes, voice so guileless and smile so genuinely confused she almost buys it. If not for his eyes.

She studies him for a few minutes, scratching the back of her neck.

"You're acting. Why? I don't know you, you don't know me, why try and put on a show?"

Shindo surprises her then, with his too-candid "Because that's what heroes do."

River is left to stare at his back as he walks onwards, catching up with Chiroptera. They start talking and River is left to walk after, her mind whirling away.

When they get back to the agency Shindo does something strange. He follows her into the room that has been given to her for the time being. River sits on her bed and lets him sit across from her. There's something different in his dark eyes. Just a little, the cunningness giving way to something different. She doesn't know what think of it, but it's familiar somehow.

"How do you know?" Shindo asks.

"That you're lying?" she asks. The smile finally leaves his face, revealing it to be more blank than not. There's no light to him. He is dark. He nods once.

"It's your eyes," she says at last. "They don't reflect anything. Your eyes give you away. That's not something that can be changed. No one is a good enough liar for that."

Shinso runs his fingers through his hair. He's a handsome young man, sharp bones already emerging under baby fat. He's built strong, able. She can see his combat potential sitting under his skin.

"Oh," he says. She doesn't know what to make of that but now, his eyes are different. Not a weasel, not really. Onyx. Slate. Not even alive.

"What-" she almost asks. ' _What are you?'_ but holds her tongue instead.

What is he? What is she? She does not know and maybe he doesn't either or-

Or maybe he has answers. Answers in his half hidden truths, behind his lying smiles and false pleasantries. Maybe he had answers for others with eyes that were not Right, eyes like hers, like Taro's, eyes like the sunset-

But, such things are normal here, aren't they? Mina's eyes were beautiful. Strange, abnormal. But, different from hers. Different from Shindo's. Different from the dead woman in the crossroads and the men who attacked her.

Their eyes are unnatural. Not merely uncommon.

"I don't feel the way I'm supposed to," Shindo says, so suddenly River almost doesn't register the words. Her eyes dart to him. He's not looking at her.

"Like, a sociopath?" she has to ask. He shakes his head. His hands clasp in front of him and River has to wonder, why is he telling her these things.

"People talk a lot. About joy, and love and all that. I don't feel those things. All I feel are negative emotions. Anger, mostly. Fear. Sadness, sometimes. Hate. And that it. That's all I'm capable of, are these dark feelings."

River feels her heart ache for him. She knows, a little, about that. She remember her time, when there was only death and pain and fear and hunger. Before Taro, before Gabe, before even Jackie, who had never had so much faith in her as Gabe. They had freed her from the prison of self-sustained despair.

The world they took her to was not one of kindness or softness or light. But, it was one of love. The idea of not feeling it-

Was horrible.

"Do your parents know?" she asks. Shindo doesn't answer right away. She gets the feeling that he doesn't talk about this much. He is withdrawn, for all he acts friendly and kind.

"I don't have parents," he says at last. "I was found wandering the streets a few years ago. I don't remember anything before that."

"Why do you want to be a hero?" she asks.

Shindo looks at her with those same eyes. Eyes like hers.

"So no one else has to feel these things I feel. If I can't know goodness, let them."

River doesn't know what he expects her say, or do. She thinks it's not what she actually does, which is smile and incline her head.

"I understand. Sort of."

He looks at her and she feels like she has to explain. He has shown her his heart and now she offers him hers in return. Less noble, more damaged, but she opens her ribs a crack nonetheless.

"Not about your motivation. It's way more noble than mine," she confessed, "It's not very heroic, I know, but I think sometimes, about how much easier it would be to just kill the villains. Not better for the world, or worse for me. I don't care about being the same as them. Just… easier."

"Why do you want to be a hero?" he asks, parroting her from before. River grips her hands in front of her tight.

 _"-there's nothing that we can do. Police handle things like that."_

 _"You're just a scorpion surrounded by frogs. Your nature is to kill,-"_

 _"You'll enroll in a hero course and spend your life working to better humanity. A shot at redemption bought by an act of kindness towards a stranger."_

"A promise," she says at last. She is not made to be a hero. She knows this. But still she is here, surrounded by them. She does not have the heart for it. She has the heart for love and vengeance, she does not have the all encompassing light like All Might she did not have it in her to throw herself in front of strangers and take bullets.

Stain was right.

A promise was driving her, not a fire, not a real desire.

How could someone like her be a hero? How could she take that name and wear it with any measure of pride? Sentinel.

She would always be-

"Why are you like that?" Shindo asks. Its not an accusation, she can't find any anger in him. If he can't feel positive things-

She's never heard of someone like that. Low empathy people, certainly. Depressed, yes, but that doesn't sound quite right. She does not know what Shindo is.

She thinks he might not even be human.

"Trauma," she says. "It can rewire the brain. Change people, irreversibly. "

"What happened?" he asks.

River looks at him. Yellow eyes, red streaked hair, a bite behind her unpainted lips. They curl, human teeth dull but sharp, sardonic and sad and the sorrow wells up inside of her again, the way it always does. There's a vindictive spark of fire in her too. Two men, two acts, two emotions. The same outcome.

"I killed my father."

* * *

They form a small union then, for the rest of the week. Her and Shindo, one who cannot regret her sin the other who cannot find joy in heroics, sitting in the kitchen in the early morning when Anansi walks in to take his cereal. He still hurts her eyes to look at but River knows now not to say anything.

Chriptera and Beowulf do not interact with them much. After River finds them shoved together in a hallway closet they avoid her as much as they can.

Detox-

Detox she does not speak to until her final day in Wizardry. He offers to drive her to the train station, taking everyone in the room by surprise.

Miss Heron looks at Wizard, who is doing the same thing for Shindo. He turns a playing card over in his hands, making it vanish and reappear a few different times. He has a talent for slight of hand, smoke and mirrors. Now that River knows he really can fight she has to wonder how dangerous he might potentially be.

"Okay," he says finally, "Play nice."

River doesn't like the sound of that. But, she agrees. She steps close enough to hug, Shindo, ignoring how he stiffens in surprise.

"You'll be a fine hero one day," she murmurs in his ear. "Give me a call if you're even in Mustafu."

Shindo pats her back awkwardly.

"You know hugs don't make me feel anything," he says, too low for the others to hear. River squeezes him.

"Yeah, but I like them," she pulls back to throw him a smile, more real than the one he has painted onto his own face. He still returns it, if only out of habit, and that is good enough for her, she thinks. She leaves him behind and goes with Detox, still thinking on Shindo. And on Anansi, somewhat. Whenever she looks at him she feels like she's walked through a cobweb. She assumes its just the spider imagery.

Detox loads her into a small car, letting her sit in the passenger seat beside him up front. The air is thick, Detox's eyes are narrowed at the road ahead of them. Red, but not like hers and Shindo's.

His are natural. Bright. Kind, too, for all she can see fear in them.

"…Why are you doing this?" she asks once they're a couple of blocks away.

"Because I thought you might not want to walk," he says. River rolls her eyes, sinking back into the seat. The city passes them by, iron and glass and stone.

"Uh huh," she says, disbelieving. Detox still doesn't smile, but his cheeks twitch. They drive in silence until they're at the station and he parks the car. River doesn't get out right away. She sits, giving him a few minutes to decide whether he wants to talk to her or not. About, whatever it is that he's been holding back on.

Finally, he takes a deep breath. "When you saw Stain, what was it like?"

River's stomach twists. She looks away. Stain? Stain, with his red eyes that saw into her very soul, with his knives and his conviction, everything she was and was not.

"I dunno," she says at last. "He was just a guy. He had strong convictions."

"That's it?" Detox asked. "Don't you hate him? For being the badguy? For attacking your friends and hurting you?"

River has to think on that. "I don't know. I think I do."

But not for anything so simple as him being the bad guy. For attacking her friends, certainly. But, the thing she hated about him the most was how easily he saw into her heart. How he called her truth to the surface when she had been trying to stuff it down for so, so long.

"Yes," she says at last. Detox frowns. She can feel the conversation is at an end but she's not willing to let it go so easily. Social conventions be damned.

"Why do you want to know?" she asks, looking right at him. Wide mouth, sharp bones, and red, red eyes. He looks at her. Something about him seems so _sad_.

"Just curious," he says. River lets him leave it at that. She leaves the car behind, shuts the door behind and boards the train home. While she's there she overhears people talking about Stain, and the video on the internet. But nothing about her, and the deal with the cops had been the same.

River pulls out her phone and, with only a little bit of googling, she has it.

It opens with a brief memoire about his childhood. His broken faith and his fall in mania. 'Trained for years in killing techniques' almost makes her laugh. Who had trained him like that?

Then, the video shows up.

Stain, his broken arms hanging at his side but the knife still fisted in his hands. His red eyes wild, the world itself bleeding around him with the force of it.

River grows still. This was how Stain was perceived by other people. Otherworldly, powerful, a source of dark cleansing with a charisma that could stir so easily action, admiration, and fear.

River had seen it too, first hand, but to see it from the eyes of another changes everything. She can see Midoriya in the shot, and herself, as well, lunging away from a conglomerate of heroes. The video cuts out before she can kick his ribs in. It makes sense, if they want to show him to be a savior they can't show him getting taken down by a couple of teenagers.

The world is moving on. Regardless of what she's done, the world spins on. Stain is still a rallying point for villains. Iida's hand is still injured. She may have taken the top slot in the sport festival but that's trivial. Does anything she does really make that big of a difference?

River's head falls back against the seat.

It's been a long, long time since she's been so utterly exhausted.


	18. Girls Night

When the train pulled into the station so much had happened that River had actually forgotten her promise to go to a sleepover with all the girls.

She was the last to arrive. Fashionably late, naturally, the rest of them were gathered in a huddle waiting for her. The only one who couldn't come was Hagakure, whose mom's birthday was that weekend.

Well, Hagakure and now River herself.

The very one who suggested the whole venture. She feels bad but looking over the girls as they are, she knows she can't bring them any joy tonight and she know that it's not nice to cancel last minute but she doesn't think she can handle their bright laughter or their sweet, beautiful innocence.

For she is a scorpion and they, all of them, are frogs who trust her so easily.

It's not fair.

It's not fair and she wants to scream and shout and climb the staircase of heaven to demand why, why, why can't she just be _new_? Just be _real_? Just be River? Be Sentinel. Be _anyone else_.

Wasn't death enough?

Wasn't death enough to wash the red from her hair and her hands? Wasn't fire hot enough to make her coyote eyes pop and pour like runny eggs down her cheeks until something new grew from the ashes? Blue like the sea, green like the trees, Brown like the earth, black like the Dahlia.

Not yellow. Not yellow coyote eyes.

Not yellow scorpion eyes.

Stain has seen right through her and she wonders, how had her classmates not. She was a sorry liar.

They were too trusting, she figures. Or Gabriel had done something, something with his magic and her favor to lessen the suspicion that would be placed upon her normally. No one should have come out of nowhere so easily, no one should have beaten Bakugou so plainly or Stain the way she did but none of the teachers had confronted her and even the boys had stopped asing questions once her terrible truth, and her avoidance of more truth came to light.

The boys.

She liked her boys, truly. They were good and kind and sweet.

But, she was always more comfortable with girls. It was just a fact. They were easier. She understood girls and she had never, in her life, had to worry about a girl following her home and trying to stab her in the tit because she wouldn't show them. Girls had never burned her alive for not fucking them.

River picked her was towards the other girls, holding her backpack strap tightly. It's back again, the paranoia that she had slowly lost over the years. The safety she had begun to feel. The crowd is big, the people are moving. It's so easy to move between them, to bump against someone. To slip a needle against their arm and be gone. To slip a knife between their ribs and vanish.

Her friends have no idea.

They've never been in constant danger, they've never been like her.

There are two people in this world that she knows to be. Tomura Shigaraki, and Overhaul.

If Gabe had never gotten her, would she be like them? Filled with anger, ruthless, absorbed in their own goals? Or would she have done as she always did, following Anne's word? Would Taro have died? Would she have?

"Hey guys," she smiles at them, accepting a hug from Mina once she's close enough.

"Hey," Jirou smiles at her, "You ready to go?"

River looks away, biting her lip.

"About that… I'm sorry guys. I know this was my idea, but I don't think I can go. I'm exhausted. It was a long trip."

Uraraka's brows pinched in concern. "Is it because of the Hero Killer? You were there with Deku and the others, weren't you?"

River looked at her, startled. She'd forgotten, Deku had called her hadn't he? And texted Kirishima and a few of the others as well.

"Yeah," she agreed. It was true, it was Stain's fault that this has happened. But it was her own issues and not some trauma from his attack that made her feel this way.

"Then you have to come," Tsu told her firmly. "You need to be with your friends when stuff like this happens. I felt better after the USJ when I hung out with Ochaco after."

River looks between the girls. Her friends. They won't understand, she doesn't want them too, but maybe…

Maybe she shouldn't isolate herself

A smile slowly spreads across her face.

"Okay," she says at last.

* * *

Yaomomo's house is bigger than Rivers entire apartment building. It throws the rest of the world around them into shadows. A wide garden spread across them as they walk up a winding paved path towards the mansion. The entire property is bordered and surrounded by a high gate, with security camera's everywhere. River can't help the way she spots blind spots and low points.

It's rather amazing.

Everyone who isn't Yaomomo is gaping at it. It's hard no to.

"You really live here?" Jirou asks, tilting her head all the way back to she can look up at a patio that juts out from the second floor, wrapping around it. To the left is one of those tower things that spins up above the rest, covered in windows and ivy. There's not a spot of paint that is cracked a pealing. The roof is tiled with grey-blue and looks new. The wrought iron fences are hidden by thick trees and foliage that avoids the ground as if by magic. The pathway is bordered on both side with rose bushes that bloom in a pattern of yellow, red, white, and pink in that order, and in front of them blooms a line of purple iris.

Though she can't see the pool that they certainly have, River can smell chlorine in the air and she can hear people chatting. Staff, people in uniforms, black pants and burgundy buttoned up shirts, move around them in the shadows. River can't help the way she looks at them. Looks for the small tells that they have weapons, that they walk on silent feet, that they move through the shadows in the dark.

Nothing. The only killer here is her, and she will draw no blood from these girls. Never.

Never again with her hair be dyed with the blood of those she loves, struck down by her own hand.

Yaomomo leads them up the long stairs and pushes open the double doors, letting them inside. The inside is just as grand. A winding chandelier hangs above their heads, the light warm. The entry way is made of finely polished marble, the floor and the circle things that go upwards. Red drapes spread across the windows and matching carpet lays a path up a staircase that splits halfway up, framing an oil painting of Yaomomo and people that River assumes are her parents. It's more than life sized. She can see gold, silver, and more marble ornaments, statues and decorum.

Gen would have been able to identify everything and all of its monetary value.

She doesn't bother to pretend she isn't impressed. She's pretty sure Uraraka's about to faint as they're lead up the stairs and down a long hallways lines with wide paneled windows. The light that spills in is golden with the afternoon sun, laying paths in front of them. Tsu and Mina start a game of jumping from one to the others without stepping on any shadows.

River counts three turns before Yaomomo finally pushes open a thick oak door.

River doesn't know what she thought that the 'west parlor' would look like. Even when she worked for the richest of the richest they spent their days in penthouses and redesigned apartment complexes, not mansions.

The 'parlor' is a big room, bigger than her apartment. Easily the size of the house she's had in New York. The floor is made of fine, dark wood and brightened by a blue and white Persian rug that patterns out underneath an overstuffed couch. Next to a massive fireplace sits a dark table with five chairs. A love seat without a back is pushed up against one of the many windows, along with a secretary desk.

River used to know what they were called, but she's forgotten.

A low fire burns in the fireplace, warm and crackling. The mantel is home to small crystal animals that dance in the warmth and gleam softly. There's a door leading somewhere else in the corner and when Jirou goes to explore it River catches sight of a kitchenette and a pile of sleeping bags and pillows inside.

"Okay," River says quietly to Uraraka, "My new hero goal is to be super goddamn rich."

Uraraka nods quickly in agreement. She's just as broke as River was before she got back into her old habits.

Yaomomo stretches her arms above her head, sighing in satisfaction.

"It's so good to be home!" she sighs, and falls back onto the couch. "My internship gave me a hotel room, but it was so small…"

River doesn't even want to think of what it was like. She remembers the small barracks in Wizardry. Not a hotel room by any means, but good enough for her. She unties the thick red rope around one of the curtains so she can pull them closed.

"Okay, I'm done wearing real people clothes, anyone else ready for pajamas?" in the middle of the day.

"Yeah!" Mina jumps to join her and Tsu and Jirou get a couple of others. The six windows are covered and River strips. It's not like none of them have ever seen her before, they share the locker rooms all the time.

"So what else was your internship like, River? Besides the hero killer," Mina asks, looking over at her.

River hums and shrugs, pulling an oversized t-shirt down over her tits. It's more like a dress and it makes it hard to see her hard won muscles and build. Her pants are patterned with little butterflies and her feet at bare and scarred.

She sits cross legged on the floor, next to the warmth of the fire, and Mina in her pink tank and white shorts makes herself comfortable on her lap.

"It was… educational. I underestimated Wizards quirk. Uh… he's a doomsday prepper. There's a bunker under his agency. Met a new friend! That was fun, I think. I guess, it didn't go how I thought I would," thought not for the reasons that the girls assumed. She had always planned on going after Stain, on defending her friends. She had not thought she would learn much of anything.

She was going to have to watch herself.

"Did you learn anything about rescuing people?" Jirou asks, stretching out on the love seat. Uraraka and Tsu take up a couple of the chairs by the table, sitting on the patterned cushions.

"You know, not really. We went over some medical stuff, and priorities, but we never really got the chance to go out and get some practice. I would have, but I went to see what was up with Deku, and, you know," she shrugs.

There's a funny quiet, a little awkward.

"What about you guys? What happened at yours?"

Tsu tells them about her run in with pirates, and what she's learned about being a hero. What it really means. Yaomomo describes the glamour and the curse of fame. Jirou regales the with her tale of rescruing hostages, leading them away and the warm pride in her ribs as she was called a hero for the first time. Mina talks about how she'd worked with a hero on natural disasters, using her acid to carefully eat away at obstacles that trapped victims.

and a fire lights in Uraraka's eyes.

"Guess she found her fighting spirit," River jokes with Mina.

"It's kinda scary," the pink girl mutters back.

"I love that girl," River tells her absolutely. Mina snickers as her.

They spend hours like that, talking, leaning against each other and catching up until Yaomomo picks up a remote and a panel above the fireplace moves out of the way, revealing a tv. From the other room Yaomomo brings out a stack of movies as tall as she was and they dive in. Horror, romance, action. River is unfamiliar with all of them.

The plotlines are familiar. She can recognize something like the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Devil Wears Prada, but this world has split off and pop culture has taken a different turn.

River has to go to the couch so she can see and she finds herself squished between Uraraka and Yaomomo, with Mina stretched across their laps. She plays with the girls pink hair and for a while, just a while she can.

The girls are warm and soft and she is so, _so_ glad she didn't go home to wallow in her own self pity.

* * *

River wakes up first.

She can't see the sun through the thick down sleeping bag that's been tossed over the back of the couch and supported on the opposite end with two chairs, but she knows its risen. She can here a bird singing on the other side of the windows, a bright chirping. She wonders what they sing about.

Mina is at her back, back to back, she can feel the tickle of her curly hair against her neck. Uraraka had, at some point, decided to use her stomach as a pillow and sleeps sounds with an arm around Tsu. She can't quite see it in the darkness but she can feel that's Yaomomo pressed up against her legs and Jirou sleeping soundly against her chest.

They'd built a fort that night and stuffed all of themselves inside of it. Warm, soft bodies against each other, peace and friendship.

River doesn't move until Jirou stirs first. She starts a chain reaction and before long the rest of the girls are untangling themselves and climbing out of the fort before it can fall on them.

They troop out with sleepy eyes and slumped shoulders, save Mina who never seems to run out of energy. River wonders if it's got something to do with her acid or if that's just the way she is.

Yaomomo leads them down the long hallways until they enter a dining room the side of a train car. The table in the midst is heavy and solid and River doesn't even want to think of how bit the tree that made it must be. It seats all of them and there's still room for the rest of their class, if they had been in attendance.

Maybe one day they'll have all of them over at once. Or maybe that would have to wait until they'd all moved into the doors.

River watches with interest as a veritable army of men and women march in and set the table, filling it with a banquet of food. Rice and fish, fruits, breads, juice and coffee and pastries piled high. River reaffirms to herself that she is going to be a rich, rich hero.

She muffles a yawn. She's still tired. They'd been up until nearly three and she's out of the habit or working on hardly any sleep at all. They're talking is mostly done, besides Mina who gushes happily over the food. River has to admit, it's amazing. It easily some of the best food she's ever eaten.

She wolfs it down with all of the other, and before the sun is halfway in the sky Yaomomo's parents rather politely kick them out. One after the other they're given cars and driven home.

Her driver won't take her the whole way home and River doesn't fault him for it. She doesn't live in a nice area, even though she could if she wanted now. Maybe. She was still an American.

When she reaches her door she can feel that Jin is out. Gone. She has a couple of guesses where.

When she walks in, her cat is sitting in the middle of the room, staring at her. Staring at her hard.

There is an angel in her kitchen.


	19. With a Capital 'D'

At school the next day she sits in her desk, drawing on her notebook instead of taking actual notes. She drew the words that Micheal had told her. They didn't make any sense.

 _The Damned have risen. With a capital 'D'. Thought you ought to know._

' _And what,_ ' she had asked, ' _is that supposed to mean?_ '

Micheal had tossed her a smile that wasn't half as angelic as she felt it should have been, and with a beat of wings and a flash of light he was gone from her kitchen, and out of her life.

When she had looked at Tarmac he'd had a little bell around his neck and a bowl of milk in front of him. The angel had a fondness for riddles, and for cats, it seemed.

River didn't know what he was talking about. The Damned. Was that like, a zombie army that was coming for her? Or something from the manga that she hadn't gotten to yet? A subsect of Overhauls little group maybe?

As she recalled, the Shie Hassaikai, the Eight Precepts of Death, were very much like she had been. A Yakuza group, once very powerful. One that had torn apart anyone who got in their way, one that had influenced even the highest reaches of the government. The rise of superheroes had destroyed them, and left Kai Chisaki, Overhaul, with a deep grudge for them.

It reminded her of Anne. Anne, who had controlled an entire cities underworld. And that was only when River a child. Tiny, just a pit fighter that Taro had found and picked out of the bloodied dirt. She had been lucky. She'd gotten to see Anne spread her influence. From LA, to San Francisco, to Oakland, to San Jose, and up, up to Seattle and Portland and once she had the west coast she spread herself east. Phoenix, Tuscan, Salt Lake and Denver. Colorado Springs had given them some trouble but before long Anne had the entire underworld from Cali to Idaho answering to her.

The east was where the old money was, but the west was where the roughest of the rough were. Crime was already more organized, more _civilized_ , as the men who ruled Chicago said. They abided more strickly by the old ways than any of them did and when Anne invoked Commonteach and pushed River forwards they accepted.

And they lost.

Before she was pinched she won Anne every city, every state, even parts of the unground in other countries. The only part of the US they were missing was dixie, with the shit-crazy moonshiners and hollar's no one but natives could navigate. Crazy, but deep in their roots and unyielding to a yuppy from the west.

Oh there were still those who held out. Little gangs in Arizona, and Nevada, once powerful families in New York and Baltimore. But Anne got her way, in the end. She was powerful and ambitious, and with Jasper at one side and Taro at the other, there was no one that could stand in her way.

Not until Gabe took up a war against her.

It had been her, Taro, Jasper and Anne. Eating up the country and the world. And one person had stood against them. Then two, then three, and they had dug into them with strong jaws and had never, never let go, until they had River in their fold. Until Taro was dead. Until Jasper was gone. Until only Anne was left.

She didn't know where she was now, but the more she thinks about it the closer River is to laughing. She's like some kind of fucked up mix between Overhaul, Shigaraki and Todoroki.

Under her and Taro and Jasper, Jazz, were Jaspers followers. They hadn't named them, but they all served just as loyally as the Expendables. It was smart, and honestly not so cruel as some people might think. They had no other reason to live and they were offered one by a man who made no charade of the fact that he was using them. Jasper had raised other's like her from childhood, but he had made a game of it. Had lead them to believe that they were something special, something important to him and Anne instead of just what they were. Easy to manipulate, loyal to the bone, knowing only the world that they'd been taught.

River envied them and pitied them at once.

She did not pity the Expendables.

Her notes changed from ' _The Damned have risen. With a capital 'D'. Thought you ought to know.'_ To a list of the expendables.

 _Rikiya Katsukame – Vitality theft. Big muscle fucker. Something about sex?_

 _Yu Hojo – Not Inuyasha. Good counterfeiter but not good enough. Makes crystals with his body. Weird ass face._

 _Kendo Rappa – Strong man. Death wish? Haven't seen him in the Pits. Weird._

 _Soramitsu Tabe – Scarecrow wannabe. Eats a lot. Kinda nutty. No oral for him._

 _Toya Setsuno – Sad boi. Weird teleportation. Why do guys try to die after heartbreak? Drama fuckers. Soft hair?_

That was only five. There were eight, and she knew she knew them but she couldn't think of them right then. She tapped her pencil, glaring at the paper. She entertained, very briefly, finding Overhaul and killing him and his men before they could torture the little girl anymore. She didn't dismiss it as quickly as she wanted to. She still had the eyes, didn't she? The scorpion eyes.

The killers eyes.

The bell rang and she rose, gathering her things together quickly. She looked around the classroom until her eyes landed on Bakugou. She rushed to grab his arm, and almost got punched in the face for her troubles. But she didn't flinch back. She looked at him, a half smile breaking across her face.

"Hey. You wanna fight this afternoon?" she asked. But Bakugou's eyes didn't light with competition. A grin didn't split at the idea of a fight. Instead he wrenched his arm out of her hands and stormed away, leaving her stunned.

"Don't fucking play with me," he snapped, and turned on his heel to storm away.

River was left standing there, watching his back as he slung his bag around his back.

 _Well shit._

* * *

It is hard to make amends for something that she doesn't know she's done. She knows Bakugou to be an angry little fuck, but he's not so temperamental that he'll go off without some kind of slight, even an imagined one, especially not to someone willing and able to give him a good fight. He loves fighting. There's a thrill to it for him, River can see it in his eyes.

So the day after his stormed out of the classroom, when they have combat training, she partners with him. They're in the mocked up factory area, in sight of their teacher, sort of in sight of the others, who are also partnered off giving chase and she catches him in a second. Quirks are sanctioned and so she uses hers. Corners him like a rat in a cage and stands before him in her costume ,which doesn't feel as right as it once had anymore.

She stands in front of him, watching him with her yellow eyes. Scorpion. Coyote. She stands in front of Bakugou all the same, his captor.

"Alright, spill. Why are you acting like I pissed in your apple juice?"

His whole face scrunches up, and it's clear he has no idea what to do with that. The anger's still there though. Different from the anger that's always simmering under him, it's got a direction at her this time. A personal one.

"Well?" she plants her hands on the wall at his front and leans forwards, watching him. She's given him nothing this time. No way out. She waits. River can be patient, when she wants something, and Bakugou is much less patient than she is. "Why do you think I was playing a game?"

"Don't pretend!" he snapped. "You've been playing with me this whole time, and at the Festival all you did was put up a hand while I gave everything! You humiliated me and you weren't even trying!"

River frowned. That was it? This whole bitch fit was he thought she'd disrespected him? Over something from the Sport Festival, what felt like forever ago?

"You gave me a better fight than most people ever do. Just because I won-"

"You think I care that you won? You lead me on! Acted like you were going all out but you've never given me your all! You never will, will you!?"

"No," River snaps at him, "I won't. I won't because I like you alive, thanks!"

That shut him up. She can see confusion in his eyes and she takes a breath. Looks down at his bare arms. She draws a breath and snaps her fingers. Bakugou hisses as his skin open up, just a half a centimeter deep. Deep enough for blood to bead at the edges, perfectly smooth straight, and cling to the thin wall she's left behind as he moves away.

His head snaps up to her, red goshawk eyes wider. River's smiles have all dried now, her teasing gone.

"I am dangerous, Katsuki. You knew that already. Once I put up a barriers there's next to nothing that can break it. Even if it intercepts something that's already there. I can cut through skin. Or bone. Or stone or even metal. So no, I don't use my quirk offensively. Not unless I want someone to die. And I want you to live. I want you to fight. I want to knock around your pride a little more. Do you understand now? Your pride, your strength I never questioned or mocked. You wanted me to fight with my quirk, you wanted me to give it my all. I gave it everything I could without killing you. So if you're mad about that go ahead an be mad."

She pulled back and let the barrier drop, leaving the boy inside stunned.

She moves on to the next fight. With Tokoyami, while Mina tries to get Bakugou's attention, waving a pink hand in front of his face. She can feel Aizawa watching her.

* * *

 _River is nineteen when she first understands exactly how dangerous Taro has made her._

 _She knows she hasn't changed in the last two years. She is not a fool. She is no taller, her scars no longer stick and her face is still soft and young even as two years have passed her by. Two years stalking the long threads that travel back to Anne and Jazz._

 _Her hand itches, the lace glove stinging like it's fresh again whenever she thinks of the pair._

 _She is nineteen. She has been shot, she has been stabbed, and she knows now how to throw up shields without needing to see where it begins and ends. She is nineteen and they appear as fast as she thinks of them._

 _She forgets, in the five years it has been since she left them how fast Jazz is. They barely manage to catch up to him in the safehouse in Maine, a thousand miles away from where she'd seen him last. It was sunny and bright and it was far too cheerful outside for the firefight that started as soon as they stepped foot inside. She shields Jess from every bullet and watches him put people in the ground with the grace of a wild cat, his eyes flashing behind the thick sun glasses even in the dark interior._

 _She almost misses the flash on her right, the movement that gives away when Jazz springs from his hiding place, knife in one hand._

 _She turns, lifts her hands and a shield snaps into existence. Jazz is faster than her thoughts and he crosses her mental boundary before the shield materialized, invisible. The only reason anyone but her knows it there is because Jazz is halfway over it and in half his body falls, torso on one side and legs on the other. The blood stains the air where she made the shield and she stares, stunned, as he still manages to drive his knife into her calf, half up on one arm. His guts don't spill, the wall keeps them in place. Blood still flows out of him and he doesn't even `Get to understand why he's shorter before the light dims from his eyes._

 _River tears her struck gaze from him to look at the few remaining kids he's sicked on them, who are all staring at her. They are children, no older than fifteen, she thinks. Perhaps, has she not been one of them, she might hesitate._

 _She cocks her head, thinks of a wall over each of their shoulders and four heads roll on invisible table tops._

 _The blood flows off the edges, dripping down while bodies collapse on the floor._

 _She stands among the carnage, breathing slowly._

 _Red runs around River's feet._

 _Jazz is dead._

 _Killing has never been easier and for the first time River is afraid of herself._


	20. End of Term, Start of Disaster

Three days of written tests. River passes them by in a daze, finishing her tests swiftly. She's either nailed it or failed it, she'll find out later. The only part that she's worried about it the physical aspect, and even that she knows she can pass. She's clever, she's tricky, she's dangerous and in another lifetime she might well have been the end for some of her teachers. She's glad she doesn't have to be. She's glad she doesn't do that anymore.

That does not change her eyes.

River stands along with all of the others at the weeks end, turning her yellow visor over and over in her hands as they wait for Aizawa to start speaking. Everyone is in their hero costumes, standing in front of the part of the school where all of the training grounds are kept. She alone knows the truth of what they're about to do. She wishes it really was robots they were fighting again. That would be so much easier. Finally, Aizawa clears his throat and everyone shuts up swiftly. They know better than to keep talking when he wanted their attention.

"Now then, let's begin the last test." Aizawa begins, "Remember, it's possible to fail this final. If you want to go to camp, don't make any stupid mistakes."

"Why are all the teachers here?" Jirou asks, prodding things along.

"I expect many of you have gathered information and believe that you have some idea of what you'll be faced with today."

"We're fighting those big ol' metal robots!" Kaminari grins at River, who returns it with a more subdued smile.

"Fireworks! S'mores! Here we come!" Mina adds, throwing her hands into the air. A shape rustles around in Aizawa's scarf before the principal, who is admittedly very cute, pops out like a freaky kind of weasel.

"This years tests will be _completely_ _different_ for various reasons!"

River listens with half an ear to the explanation. About how their needed to really see their progress, and challenge them. Push them to their limits and beyond so they would be ready for what the world had in store. River still didn't want her friends to be ready for the world. Being ready meant knowing what was out there waiting for them.

Finally, he got to the point. "So what does that mean for you? You students will be working together in pairs and your opponents will be none other than our esteemed UA Teachers. Isn't that fabulous?" His smile is far too bright. River knows he's going to get some sick, sadistic pleasure from beating the pulp out of his two. Who will they be? Has she changed things enough to switch around their matchings? Who will she work with?

"We're fighting the teachers?" Uraraka looks faint.

"Additionally, your partners and opponents have already been chosen. They were determined at my discretion based on various factors, including fighting style, grades, and interpersonal relationships." Aizawa adds, looking insufferably smug. "First, we have Yaoyorozu and Todoroki are a team. Against _me_. Then we have Midoriya paired with Bakugo and their opponent is…"

Dropped from the sky. His shadowed eyes are dangerous and his whole demeanor has changed. River feels her heartbeat pick up. Aizawa keeps on the list, finally speaking River's name.

"River and Jirou, against Present Mic."

River looks between her teammate and the teachers. That was… bad. But, she had just revealed to them the last part of her quirk she was hiding. The offensive capabilities…

The ones that she was not going to use because she was going to be a _defense hero_ , damn it. A fact she was having a harder time holding onto these days.

Jirou nudged her and River tossed her a smile.

"We got this," she assured, completely ignoring Present Mic's weird little speech about not holding back. He would. They all would, so things would be a little more fair on the children.

She and Jirou leave the others behind, going to sit in the trees and talk about how they're going to come at this.

"He uses sound to attack," River says, leaning back to back with her friend and new partner. A few strands of red and blonde hair fluttering in front of her eyes. Her hair is well past her shoulders now, and it grows more wild by the day.

"I thought he was just the DJ. You really think he's gonna give us that much trouble?"

"He didn't make the cut as a UA teacher for nothing. He's as good as Aizawa, at the very least. And I can't block his attacks anymore than I can block yours. I'm weak to sound," which was still a strange thing to think, but it was true. "So. We have to either get past him, or get the cuffs on him."

For a few moments the only sound is a cricket nearby and bird whistling cheerfully above them. Then, Jirou shifts against her back and takes her hand. River can hear her grin.

"I think I have an idea…"

* * *

River pressed close to Jirou, her eyes on Present Mic. He stood in front of the gate, whistling amiably. But his patience would only last so long, she was very sure. Jirou crouched with her behind a bush, a tree to one side. There was open path not far away. That's where she'll come from. It'll be over in a few seconds and she feels bad. Jirou hardly gets the chance to shine, but they need to be over and done with this before he opens his big mouth.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

River stood, slowly. Her shoulders dropped and she walked forwards, around the brush and into the pathway, but the light did not touch her. It was harder in the broad sunlight, but she could still do it.

 _Vanish into the shadows and erase your breath. Become the darkness. Become death._

She walks right by Present Mic right as he opens his mouth.

"I'm getting BOOOR-"

She kicks him in the kidneys before he can do damage to poor Jirou, still hidden in the shadows of the trees. He drops with a shout, hitting the ground and River crosses the finish line. They had picked a good person, and a bad partner. Both of them could get past her shields, and she was literally defenseless. But she had more than one trick up her sleeve.

"So," she says, "Do we pass?"

Present Mic looks up at her, his mouth open.

"When did you-"

"I just walked right by," River smiles sweetly. "You should really pay more attention."

Jirou jogs out of the forest and slaps River a high five, grinning broadly.

"I knew it would work!"

River laughs. "I'm glad you have so much faith in me. "

And just like that, the school year is over.

River has a feeling that they were expecting things to be much harder for her and Jirou. And if she didn't have her vanishing act to fall back on, it would have been. She couldn't block him, or Jirou, and Jirou was particularly sensitive to sound.

River hangs around with the rest of them through the 'surprise ' twist that everyone is going to camp, but she denies going to the mall with everyone. She doesn't know what will happen if she sees Tomura Shigaraki like this. And she doesn't particularly want to find out. They have three weeks until it's time to go to the summer camp, plenty of time to get more shorts and some t-shirts. She doesn't need much.

So she goes home, and in the hallway she finds the boy she was trying to avoid in the first place, walking out of Jin's apartment.

He's hunched, shoulders drawn and only a little bit of blue-white hair puffing out of his hood.

He stops when he turns and she's standing there. River produces from her back another chapstick.

"This one's peppermint."

Red eyes, snake eyes, death adder eyes lift to narrow at her. "I don't need your charity."

"No, but you need chapstick. Desperately."

"Why are you here?" He demands, "Did you follow me?" He takes a step towards her, his hands moving half out of his pockets.

River rolls her eyes and points over his shoulder.

" _Darling_ , I live here."

He doesn't look like he knows what to do with that, so River drops the chaptstick into his hoodie pocket, unafraid of the hands that rest inside, and walks in to her apartment. She opens the door and looks back at him. There's a war inside of her. Part of her wants to invite him inside, ask what he's doing, ask if he's going to the mall tomorrow, ask about All For One, and if he remembers his childhood and-

And the other part of her reminds her that she is supposed to be a hero. That she's already playing the field too much with Jin and Dabi, and she cannot be companion to Tomura. He's dangerous, he's a villain.

He is everything that she is trying so desperately to leave behind.

"Hey, Quinton."

River stops at the threshold, holding the door open. "Ah?"

"Who beat Stain?" he asks.

 _"You're just a scorpion surrounded by frogs. Your nature is to kill, yet you stand before me and say you will protect? You're just another fake."_

"I did," she says, and closes the door behind her.

* * *

The next day River watches the news on her phone that the mall was under attack from the League of Villain before she makes her way to the bar. To the pit. She needs something to do, something she knows, and she needs the money.

But more than that, she needs the familiarity. Her life has been tipped upside down so many times but no matter where she goes, no matter what happens the Pit is always the same.

She doesn't get the chance to go in though, before a warm arm drapes across her shoulder and something shiny glints in the corner of her eye.

She turns her head and finds herself face to face with burning blue eyes, and deep purple massing on a metal filled face.

"Dabi," she can't help the smile that crosses her face.

"Long time no see, Red," she's pretty sure he's smiling. He's always smiling though. It can be hard to tell.

"Are you going to fight me tonight, hot stuff?" she asks, looping her arm around his middle. She can't help her fondness for him. He's very easy to be around, blunt but not abrasive. Not for her, in any case.

"Nah. Let me buy you dinner?" he asks again. River rolls her eyes.

"Another time, maybe," she says, but there's something different about him tonight. A darkness in his eyes. Worry in the set of his shoulders. River frowns.

"But we can take a walk, if you want," she offers.

Dabi agrees, and the pair of them leave the underground. Dabi draws a hood over his head and River ties her hair up in a hat before the two of them more along, into the night. There's a park nearby that more frequently used by hookers and drug dealers than it is for children, but they go there anyhow. Neither of them is afraid of the people there.

River sits on one of the swings, kicking back and forth slowly. Dabi sits next to her and lights up a cigarette, the red a pin prick point in the dark of the night. There's not much light from the city that can reach us.

"So what's going on?" River asks, leaning her face against the chain of the swing, watching him in the shadows.

"My brother's gone missing," he says at last. River stiffens, looking at him with wide eyes. His brother… Shouto? Was he even really a Todoroki? OR was that just such a common head canon?

Dabi looks at her, then looks away. He digs his phone out and opens it, showing her the front screen. Her heart drops straight into her stomach.

' _UA students kidnapped from mall trip'_.


	21. Unpleasant Packages

**Sorry this ones kinda short!**

* * *

"Sorry," the youngest of their captors smiles at them, a little sheepish. He's still older than them by a few years, but his face is soft and his eyes are not hard and cold the way his partners are. His hands, too, are soft as he dabs the blood away from Shinso's brow and placed a butterfly bandage on top of it. "I don't want you kids involved in this but…"

"But we make good bait," Yaoyarozu finishes for him. Her glare could light fires. The man winces.

"Yeah."

"Ray!" The other captor snaps, "stop coddling them. They're prisoners, not patients."

Ray frowns at her. "They're hurt, they need treatment. And they're just kids."

"Is this going to be how it is when River shows up?" She demands, spinning towards him so fast the bottom of her veil lifts and reveals a jagged scar that pulls out of the top of her shirt and races up her chin. Ray frowns, the softness fading from him.

"No," he says simply. "No. River has to die."

 _Why?_ He wanted to ask, wanted to scream. But he couldn't. If they knew he was awake, they would put him right back to sleep.

Why, why, would they want River dead? Shinso scowls at him anyways and sits back amongst the others. Two girls and two boy's from Class 1-A, a boy that he doesn't recognize, and a cat. He draws the cat into his lap and eyes the people in front of him. They're all dressed in various white outfits that look like uniforms. The boy that had seemed so concerned in the cut above his eyes from where he'd been slammed face first in a wall was the most simply dressed. Just white jeans and white hoodie that covered his curly brown hair.

Along with him are two girls. One in all camouflage of white and grey that was contrasted heavily by her burning red hair. Another, in a blonde girl in a long white shawl. All around them were identical white dressed grunts, at least twenty. Maybe thirty. They all wore the same white body suits, it was impossible to tell how man there were when they weren't standing still.

Shouto keeps his eyes closed and his breathing carefully even, feigning sleep. They had taken him from the hospital, held a gun to his mother's head and escorted him outside and into a van outside. When he'd begun to resist, smoke curling from his hand, he'd been hit hard in the back of his neck and he hadn't woken up until a few minutes ago.

Out of everyone that he could hear, he was the only one with any real combat ability. Yaoyarozu could make weapons, but tied up as they all were and under the watch of at least two different people, maybe more, he doubted she would be doing much just yet. She knew to bide her time. Yaoyarozu was clever.

Maybe they could use her to make insulation while Kaminari zapped everyone. Shouto wanted to growl in frustration. How could he plan if he didn't even know who all was here? They couldn't have all of their classmates, or that would be too much to manage. He knew that he was there. He knew that Yaoyarozu and Uraraka were there.

Momo was trying to come up with her own plan, but there was a problem.

They had stuck a bracelet on her, and she couldn't make anything. The little red gem on it glowed everytime she tried to use her quirk, and she could see an identical one on each of her fellow captives. Todoroki and the strange boy she didn't quite recognize were both unconscious, but she, Kaminari, Ochaco and Shinso were awake and watching the people around them.

Finally, the girl with the red hair looked at Uraraka.

"We need to make sure she know's we're serious," she said in a way that implied nothing good for the captives in front of them. Momo stiffened and tried to move in front of her at the same time the boy called Ray did.

"I think kidnapping qualifies as being serious," he said.

The girl shot him a look. "You know the girl. She needs proof that we're not just holding a few captives. Move. "

"Gorgon, no," he said again, more firmly.

She glared at him. "Move. Now."

He tried to argue, but as his mouth opened her eyes glowed a sudden green and before her very eyes Momo saw 'Ray' stiffen, darken, and turn to stone. Gorgon looked at Uraraka and pulled out a pair of rose sheers.

"Why are you telling me this?" River asks as they walk down the streets. "Shouto wasn't at the mall, and besides that I didn't know he was your brother." Not for sure, at least.

"Mom's hospital was attacked too. Shouto was taken by them. You're his friend."

"That still doesn't explain why you're even telling me he's your brother," River points out, "We're not _that_ close. I could, I dunno, use that against you?"

"You won't," he said with the utmost confidence. "I've bet everything on you before, and it hasn't been a mistake yet."

River sucks in a sharp breath. True, she knows, but betting on a fight was different from trusting people with secrets.

"Besides. If you try to use this against me, I'll just tell everyone that Sentinel goes to illegal fighting pits instead of holding down a real job," he adds, throwing her a smile that shows more teeth than it should, for someone like him. It makes her light with familiarity, even in this dark time.

They walk together in the streets again, until they are climbing the steps to River's apartment.

"How d'you know it wasn't the League of Villain that took him? Tomura Shigaraki went to the mall to see Izuku today."

"How'd you know that?" Dabi asks, but all she does is wink at him. He rolls his eyes. "Right, right. No, it wasn't him. He disappeared too."

River picks up the package on her way into her apartment. The door was broken, halfway off of it's hinges, and Tarmac was nowhere to be found. Had they come to target her as well? If they did, they were in for a terrible surprise.

She wasn't too worried about her cat. He could take care of himself, if he needed to.

Rive pushed the door back in place and sat on the air. She motioned for Dabi to do the same. He shot her a weird look but when he planted his hands on the air and lifted himself up, onto a platform. He looks a little unsure, but he trusts her.

He trusts her.

Her, with the scorpion eyes.

"So who do you think did it? Took all of them, at once? And what do you think they want?" River asks.

Dabi shakes his head. "I have no idea. It can't be someone targeting my father, or they would have left your friends out of it. It couldn't have been someone targeting UA either, if they took that punk, Tomura."

"He's tougher than you are," River chides, lightly.

"Excuse me?" he narrows his burning blue eyes at her and River smiles cheekily.

"He didn't even cry when he was shot eight times. You've got a glass jaw, hotshot."

"You don't think I've taken some pain?" he challenged, pointing to his stapled cheeks. River kicked him with her scarred feet. Perhaps it was someone who wanted to get at All For One, and they just so happened to grab the UA students? No. A different party. After AFO and UA?

"Oh hush," she says. She uses her power to cut the tape on the box easily. She hasn't ordered anything recently, but she'd ordered things on line and forgotten about them before. And Jin liked to leave weird shit on her doorstep sometimes. He'd left her a cat shaped candle once.

She pulled box open. Inside was another box, a smaller one, and a little white scrap of paper.

All it had on it was an address, 'Come Alone' and it was signed 'The Damned'. Heart filled with dread, River opened the smaller box. Inside was a severed finger, with a little pink pad set across the tip.

They hadn't taken them to get to Endeavor. Or All Might. Or All For One.

They were after her.


	22. Nothing Gold Can Stay

**ALSO Kinda short but I was too excited to wait!**

* * *

There is something about looking back on childhood that brightened the world. Colors that grew dull with adulthood were brilliant and new and curious through the eyes of a child. Nothing had been done yet and every flower was a new burst of color, every leaf was its own shade of green.

There was a different between the red of a fire truck and the red of a rose and the red of nail polish. The light of the sun was gold and the light of a lamp was yellow and the light of the moon was a silver sometimes and yellow others and sometimes there was no moon at all. None of the crayons in the box could ever get those right, even the kids who had the big 64 packs instead of the little ones with only twelve.

But as people age the brilliance fades. The world becomes the everyday, the ordinary, and new stops being everywhere and becomes a scarcity and the only way to regain that wonder was to look back at childhood with unpleasant nostalgia.

That was not so true for River.

Her childhood was bright, certainly. But the red was blood, the light was muzzle fire. The red was Taro's hair, the light was a cherry on a cigarette. The red was the first guitar pick Taro let her hold. The light was the tiny flashlight in her fist while they huddled in a pillow fort in the living room on a rainy night. Red was the deep gauge on her arm and yellow was the kitchen light above her head when Taro sewed it up, his rough hands impossibly gentle.

The colors never did fade as she grew older. Brilliance never turned to matte, and nothing was ever boring. There was always new, always exciting. The backrooms of dive bars, the penthouse suites in Milan. Interrogation rooms and military bunks and planes, trains, automobiles. Tokyo and Yufuin. Lagos and Obudu. London and Dorset. New York City and Chestnut Ridge. Los Angeles and Pfeiffer Beach.

It got dim, for a whole.

In New York. In her classroom. In her little house. In the nights she shared with Carter.

There never really was a spark.

There was love, she couldn't deny that. It wasn't possible to deny that. But around him the world grew into that grey that adults found. She didn't know if it was just the timing or if Carter himself had anything to do with it. But she knew that the fire had brought color.

She knew that there was color here.

Here, in the mis-matched eyes of Todoroki, in the green brilliance of Midoriya. In Mina's pink and Tsu's green. In the red of Bakugou and even Tomura Shigaraki. In Dabi's blue. The shine that came when Yaomomo made something, the spark of pink from Uraraka's quirk. Even Tokoyami and Dark Shadow seemed utterly brilliant in their dark revelries.

The world was bright, and colorful, despite everything else. Despite the dangers that lurked in the shadows and the darkness that sought out the light. There was nothing grey here.

"Nothing gold can stay," River finds herself saying. The knife in her hand is cold, heavy and awkward but she trusts herself more with it.

"What are you talking about?" Dabi asks. He's watched her prepare over this last half hour. Dress in black tights and black shorts and a black shirt of long sleeves. He watches her tie her hair back in a messy tail above her shoulders.

" ' _Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower; but only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, so dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay_.' " She says again, louder, looking at him.

"When I came here, everything was perfect. And now it's not."

"That's about how it works, isn't it?" Dabi watches her still as she pulls on a pair of black flats. "You can really fight in that?"

"You've seen me fight barefoot on glass," Rivers reminds him. "I'll be fine. Stay here."

"I'm not staying here."

"Then go home. But you're not coming with me. I'm going to get them, I'm going alone. These people aren't bluffing. They've already cut off Uraraka's hand. What's next? Your brothers pretty eyes?"

Dabi's jaw tightened. "All the more reason for me to go with you. You need back up."

"I'm not risking their lives like this. Go home, Dabi. It'll all be over in the morning."

Her yellow eyes are dull and dark. There is a fury burning in her chest, where one there had been a Favor, something precious, the thing that had gotten her here in the first place.

"Do you really think the three of them can take her on alone? Even with April's little tricks?" Cast asks. He rolls the cylinder of his revolvers in a slow circle, watching the shine of the bullet's inside. He only has six. All of them have six, and six alone. They weren't much use from far away. After a certain point they were slow and weak and wouldn't do the damage they needed them to. They needed to be close, to kill River.

Takashi stands near a window. His eyes are on a book , nothing new there. Today, though, there is a clarity to them that Jack hasn't witnessed in him before. Takashi was something of an airhead, or a sage, or whatever you wanted to call it. Cast wasn't a fucking poet. He knew that Takashi was paying more attention to the events of today than he let on. He knew he was smart. He knew that he was almost as ruthless as Chick and Serenity, but smarter than both of them.

They made him feel out of place. One Yakuza, one Death Dealer, one mafia.

And here was he, a little soldier boy. He followed orders. He wanted River to suffer, but he wasn't the one with the plans for it. He would participate, but mostly he would sit back and watch.

"No," Takashi says. The light that spills in front the slanted blinds can't be good enough for reading. This apartment is better than the last one they'd been in. It even had a washer and dryer hook up. Cast wondered what he was going to do when this was all over. Get an apartment? Wander up to this worlds Yakuza and offer himself up? Write a book?

"No? " Cast repeats.

"No. They're underestimating her. Even Chick. It's been too long since she's been active. They don't remember her. Not the way that they should. And no words will remind them that she's not some monster under the bead to be banished with salt."

"Then what is she?" Cast finds himself asking. He knew River was no monster under the bed. He's seen her laugh. Seen her cry. Seen her stand amidst steel and smoke dust while fire flickered around her, bleeding from her forehead, her ribs half poking through her chest. He had outfitted her for three years for her REACH drops. He knew River.

"She is the Death Dealer," Takashi says. It sounds different from when he talks about Chick. The. Not 'a'. There are a hundred Death Dealers, but there is only one River. There has always been only one River. He clicks the cylinder back into place.

"Then what are those three doing out there, besides giving us away?" he asks. He's not a planner. He's a soldier. Still he wants to understand.

"They're going to try. And maybe they will kill her. If so, we'll follow her to the next place. And the next one after that. But the real objective is simple."

"We're going to show the world what she really is. What she has always been. And she is no hero."

Riloth was the city south of Mustafu. It wasn't far by train, less far by car, and within an hour River was walking its quiet night streets. Tall buildings cast shadows between each other, joined together in darkness. Street lights hung in the air on the sides of streets, shining on the scattered cars parked there. She passed people, only a few. No one who wanted to talk to her, no one she wanted to talk to. She was on her way, and soon she was alone on the streets.

It felt familiar, almost.

This was how things had started, after all. This was how she had come to this place in the first place. But it was loud here. There was no preternatural silence, there was no woman with the sunset eyes nor men attempting to murder her. Dogs still barked. Children still shouted and played in windows and cars still rolled down the streets.

The air was crisp. Cold with a spring shower that she could smell on the horizon. Her feet were cold. She counted the street names, one after another. At last she came to a half, looking up at the sign. Hofuku. Retribution.

Who the fuck named this place?

River took a breath. Her heart beat hard in her chest, swollen with fury, with anger, with fear. She was going to-

To what. Kill them? Do as she had sworn she wouldn't? Return to who she had been?

Turn them over to the police, and hope the justice system did it's job?

Beat them within an inch of their lives, then turn them over and accept the consequences of it?

Maybe.

There would be consequences, she knew. She wasn't a hero. She didn't even had a provisional license. This was vigilantism, or maybe villainy, but she wasn't going to sit at home. She wasn't going to call the school and tell them what had happened. For a lot of reasons.

Not the least of them because she didn't have time to try and explain why anyone would want her like this.

She didn't know who the Damned were. She didn't know their names, she didn't know their stories, but she had an idea. An impossible idea, but wasn't she an impossibility as well? Just by being here, wasn't she breaking the rules of what was and what wasn't possible? Hadn't she been doing that since she was seventeen?

She had not done enough here to warrant this kind of attention. To earn anyone, save maybe Tomura himself, coming after her like this. Threatening her friends, hunting her down, stealing her people. No one here would do that. And when she looked closer at the granny security camera feed she recognized the unifroms for what they were. For what she had worn, once upon a time.

They were not the same, not quite, but she could see the REACH in the seams and the way the soldiers that had stormed the mall had held themselves. They had to be REACH, but everyone in REACH was dead.

She, alone, had survived and stood amongst the wreckage. She had ripped through stone and steel, screaming for someone, anyone else to be there.

No one ever answered. And no one else came to the smoldering wreck that had once been her home, that had once been REACH, even when the smoke rose into the sky so high the ships at sea must have seen it, that the people in a villages nearest must have known that something was amiss.

No one came.

No one ever did.

But she would. This time, River would come for her friends, and for the people who had dared lay a hand on them.

She stopped in front the address. It was an old store, the sign long rotted off, leaving only a phantom impression of where it had once been in the wall above the main door. There was only one on the front, and a loading dock in the back. Small, mostly concrete and open on either side. Easy to spot someone coming. Easy to spot her coming.

Good.


	23. Red River

River was walking into a trap.

She knew this. She had known as soon as she left the house that she was about to enter a trap, that it was a set up. They had her friends. They had leverage over her. But the water was rushing through her veins and roaring in her ears and when she walked in it was far too quiet.

A blanket fell across the world, muffling everything outside and leaving only the sound of water in the pipes and people who weren't her breathing in the back room. River is silent, a phantom through the doors, a shadow on the walls.

She slips through the aisles and past the flipping doors.

Her ears are open, her eyes are dark. Even still she almost misses the change in the air. The smell of smoke.

She catches the fist aimed at her face and twists it's owner over her shoulder. It's all the time she has to take in features before they are upon her again. Black hair, brown eyes. There's a flash on their right arm, _her_ right arm, is covered in in a fractal pattern. Lichtenburg scarring. Lightning.

Her left wrist is bare past the white t-shirt.

A bracelet made of blackened lace.

"Bradshaw," River recognizes. She's older now. The last time River saw her she had just gotten the bracelet. So much smaller than River's glove. She had been a pudgy little girl who worshipped the ground Jazz walked on, and she hadn't gotten much taller. If she topped 5 feet River would be amazed. Her eyes are hard an filled with fury, with hatred, and for a moment all River can think of is Jazz's torso laying on the ground, his guts held in place only by River's own power while two pools of blood came from either side of him.

Charlotte Bradshaw doesn't answer her. She bared her teeth and spits at River's feet before show throws something at her. River dodges and the small canister ignites. White smoke erupts from the edge, curling in fast whips through the air and for an instant River wonders if Charlotte, Chick, has lost her mind.

They are Death Dealers. They do not need to see to fight. It's one of the first things that River had ever learned from Taro, and she knows that she had taught it to Chick too, all those years ago. How to follow the change in the air and rely on the sound of other people simply existing.

Humans were noisy. When they breathed, when they moved. The sound of the air entering and exiting their lungs was unmistakeable. Cloth brushed against itself when they moved. But more than that, if one listened closely enough, if they focused hard enough, they could hear something… else.

River didn't know what to call it. It was like the buzz in walls when the night was soft enough and there was nothing else to hear. It came from humans and so long as she could hear that she always knew where a person was.

Then the smoke twisted and lashed against her like a whip, splitting her side clean open and River realized that it wasn't to block her view. The smoke separated and circled, wrapping around Chick in shapes like wolves, their smoky teeth just as sharply bared at hers. There is so, so much hate in eyes that had once held admiration and love.

River's stomach turns.

Somehow, Chick had gained a quirk since they had seen one another last. The smoke converges again and River cannot see Chick and so she cannot cut her or hold her in place or anything of the sort.

The shadows twist, smoke curls wreathes around the girls and they begin a dance of death.

* * *

There's a crick in his neck. His wrists hurts from where his hands and forcibly held together, tied where they can do him no good.

He should be grateful, perhaps. There's a little girl in the corner weeping over a hand that's missing its ring finger. He knows from watching the sports festival that her quirk is like his. It needs all five fingers to make contact in order for it to work.

The mall hadn't gone the way it was supposed to. As he'd been walking away from Midoriya and the little girl missing a finger, Uraraka he thinks, the whole place had suddenly filled with smoke. Smoke, and then soldiers on a uniform that Tomura didn't recognize. It's nothing impressive, in fact its downright unnerving even for him. Each and everyone one of them is in a white morph suite. They had no faces or expressions. They carry knives and swords only, no guns. On contrary to the captors that do have faces, who only carry one gun each at the hip.

His quirk hadn't worked against them.

He couldn't touch smoke enough to stop it from crowding around him until he was bound and trussed. The only faceless man that come at him had some kind of water quirk that made it so he simply dissolved into a puddle on the ground before Tomura couldn't use his hands anymore.

They had knocked him and the kids out with smoke in their lungs and when they had woken up it was in the back of some grocery store office. He could see abandoned pallets piled up through one of the small windows and he could just make out the hum of refrigeration through the pipes.

He was no fool. He knew exactly why he was here.

He was here because they wanted River, and he'd been seen leaving her apartment building not long ago, the neighboring room. He was here as collateral with a bunch of wannabe heroes because River was more interesting than she looked.

And hadn't he known that for a while?

After all, how many people had more than one quirk? How many people could make up invisible walls and regenerate from a Nomu hit in minutes? How many high school kids had what it took to stab a Nomu in the face, and then tackle him into the water?

And how many people wouldn't stop giving him Chap Stick?!

He had watched her fight on the tv. She had been dangerous but holding back. That didn't disquise how she moved from someone like him though. He'd been raised around killers. People like her.

He just assumed she was sort of plant, not by All For One but maybe by another one of the underworlds big names. Or even a small name.

Now he's not so sure.

It seems to him that if she were just a plant this would be very useless. This whole trap and these people, a girl with dead eyes and a boy that's too soft to even cut off a finger, wouldn't work if River was just a spy.

Then again, these people don't seem particularly smart. If they took him.

Kurogiri will be looking for him and All For One won't be sitting by idly either.

These people, whoever they are, are really pretty stupid.

He's just considering how to get out of his binding when the wall nearest to them explodes.

One of their captors clatters to the ground in front of them, breathing fast and shallow. Her arm is broken in three places. There's smoke moving around her sluggishly. So she's the one with that quirk.

Through the hole that had been broken in the wall, a familiar girls steps through. Her hair is tied tight back and her face is a mask of coldness. Tomura looks at her eyes and he wants to laugh. The fury within them is all encompassing. Tomura looks into golden vengeance and he knows, then, without any more doubt.

This is not a 'hero'.

* * *

The smoke fades. Blood falls from Chick's mouth and her eyes are dim and blurry and more black than brown. If she can even see after having her skull used for a bad 'here's johnny' impression River will be surprised.

She looks up and finds her friends, and for some reason Tomura Shigaraki, tied up in front of her. They're staring, their eyes wide, but she can't look at them not for real. Her attention is on the ground surrounding them. She doesn't recognize the uniforms of the strange men that line the walls. She knows the face of at least one of the others.

Maggie Cook. Jackie's daughter.

The other she doesn't know. A boy, curly hair and pierced ears. Frightened.

Maggie moves fast. Her red hair is a banner of blood and she grabs Shinso hard by the hair before throwing him at the boy. The move is rehearsed and he catches him and shoves a gun to his temple. River cocks her head. They don't know but there's a barrier between the gun and Shinso. He's safe.

She turns her gaze upon them.

"You," she says the word slowly. "You're 'the Damned' I take it. A Death Dealer, a military brat, and," her eyes pause when they land on the boy. There is something about him that is familiar. "Some wannabe pirate?"

Anger flashes through the hazel of his eyes. She thinks, strangely, of elephants. It does not fit this place at all.

"I'm Ray Kennedy. You killed my parents!" his voice is hard and vicious.

River ignored the shock that flashes across Shinso's face, the horror on Yaomomo. She looks across the three people before her. People from before, people who knew her. People who hated her so much that they would follow her even here.

She can't help it.

She laughs, cold down to her bones and filled with fury to rival a collapsing star. It burns her marrows and chills her blood and her eyes feel red rather than yellow.

"I see," she says. Her smile is far from kind. "I see. I see I was a fool, to think that things would ever change. To think that I could ever be anything but what I am. I tried to be a hero, but the dream was untenable. I am as I have always been. All I have ever been. A killer."

Stain had said it. He could see it, even when she couldn't. Even when she deluded herself with fancies of heroics and love.

"You're the Red River," the boy says harshly and she nods, once, her teeth hidden and sharp.

"I am. And you're a fool, to think you can beat me." She takes a step forwards. Maggie levels a pistol at her with a hand that shakes in ways her dads never did. The raport cracks through the air and pain erupted, a fire through the icy in her blood. Her shoulder bursts with blood. Uraraka screams and Shouto tries to lung for her but the gun in the boys hand turns to him instead of Shinso and he stills, his breath fast. Frost covers half his face.

River touches her shoulder. There is something wrong.

It's not healing.

If it's not healing, her power isn't working.

They've found a way to break her abilities. But she loves none of them.

"How-"

"Don't come any closer," the boys voice shakes and so does his hand. He is not like her. His eyes are too soft. He is not a killer, but even a mouse bites when cornered. "If you do, we'll kill them! All of them!"

River looks at him. There is a light under his skin. Does he have a quirk too?

"Maybe you will. But you won't survive."

"What are you-"

"I have lost everything I have ever had," River tells him. Her stillness is a snakes. "I lost my _life_. And if I lose it again, I will go on. But _you_."

Her yellow eyes burn. "If you lay another hand on them, I will hunt down everyone you have ever known and loved and I will _string them up_. By their tendons. By their ligaments. If they're lucky I'll kill them first. If they aren't you can explain. You can explain that you followed me here, you can explain that you tormented an innocent girl and stole away good children. You can look them in the eyes and tell them that the suffering they endure is your own consequence."

"You wouldn't," Maggie says, but her hands shake harder. They are both shaky. Filled with anger, and sorrow, but they are untested. River is still. The only that moves is the blood in her veins.

She speaks, a terrible calmness in the eye of a storm.

"Look me in the eye, call me by my name and _tell me_ that I am bluffing."

Ray Kennedy looks sick. He's pale and horrible.

Suddenly, the faceless men move, lifting knives and swords. They take a single simultaneous step before River simply snaps her fingers. They still. Stopped by a checkered cage that cuts them into a million pieces but when she releases it they do not fall in chunks of bone and flesh and blood.

They splash to the ground in the blackness of a broken pen.

It pools on the ground, spreading outwards. Whatever they were, they were not human.

River steps towards Maggie. She piles walls in front of her, knowing the consequences. A revolver, she only had six shots. Now there are five, with one of them in River's shoulder. With each step she has to dismiss the layers, and compact more.

Maggie fires a shot. It bites an inch into River's stomach, painful but slowed by the barriers that it had to shatter to get there. The air drips with blood and River feels her skin split in spider webs and glass cracks as another shot rings out and her chest burns. Three and the blood flows from her in a curtain. She needs their attention on her.

Until she looks at Ray and the barrel of his gun splits cleans from the handle and the cylinder, into three pieces.

She can barely see. Fury has blinded the cold rationality and vengeance had dulled the ease of killing. Pain brings purple spots to her vision and blood pours from a starburst that starts somewhere on her temple and a half dozen more that crown her in her own blood.

It flows in a river to meet the blackness of the destroyed creatures.

Maggie falls to her knees. She's barely breathing.

River prepares to take her head.

Only before she can the ground opens in a perfect circle beneath her and she falls through. Ray follows in another, and Maggie drops into oblivion, into the darkness of the holes ripped into the cracked, bloody tile and the void that they create.

Through the circle, for just an instant, she sees a face that makes her splintered heart threaten to break in two.

Gen looks up at her, his black hair dyed pale blond and his dark eyes deep and filed with more hate than she knew he could possess.

Just like that, they're gone.

Just like that, it's over.

Just like that, it has begun.

* * *

They only sit outside for a few minutes before the police and an ambulance appear.

None of them called for one, not one of them has a cell phone on them but the flashing lights come all the same. Tomura disappears, somewhere, River doesn't stop them. None of them are in the shape to, even if the others recognized him. She doubts it. Only Uraraka might, but she doesn't call him by name anymore than River does.

Uraraka. Uraraka who is missing a finger, who's quirk will only work on one hand now. All because of River. All because River got involved in her life, thinking that death could wash away her sins. Burn them away, rather.

She is a Death Dealer. She is the Red River.

There is no freedom from that, not even in the afterlife. Not even in the strange plans of angels or the world of heroes.

Eraserhead steps out of a police cruiser.

A man climbs down from a building across the street to great him and even with her blood loss clouding her vision and her mind River understands with clarity. The Damned had been following her. That was one of them. But this man, this friend of Aizawa's, he had been the second.

Aizawa hadn't really been fooled by her. Not for a long time. But he'd said nothing.

Why?

Why hadn't he confronted her? Why hadn't he kicked her out of the school? She doesn't understand.

She doesn't understand the horror that blossoms on his face when he lays eyes on her.

He knows what she is. So why does he run so face to them?

To ensure that the others are unharmed, probably. She wants to sleep but she's lost more blood than she has since she really was seventeen. If she sleeps, she doesn't know if she's going to wake up again.

The fury has drained, red away onto the ground and all that's left is hollowness that feels like drowning. But inside of it, mourning. Mourning for all she had almost had. For all she was going to lose. They had seen her now.

The real her, the ugly, horrible, bloody truth.

She wants to apologize. To Uraraka and Yaomomo and Shinso and Kaminari and Shouto. Who had done nothing but who had been hurt and frightened and punished for what she had done.

Her guilt is for them, only them. There is none for the Damned.

She cannot feel guilt for their deaths.

Ray Kennedy. She knows the name, she thinks. Kennedy. But all she can think of is a gunshot president and the bullet still sitting in her breast and her belly and her shoulder.

Someone is saying something. Aizawa is asking her questions but she can't answer. She can't process what he wants.

It's not the pain that shuts her off. She has hurt like this before. She will hurt like this again. It's her body, slowing blood flow and heart beat and shutting things off to try and preserve itself. Her fingers and toes are numb. It's a creeping sensation, almost to her knees and elbows.

When someone grasps her arm and tries to lift her she doesn't even scream.

She just looks up into those dark, dark eyes. There's something sad about them.

River leans against his side and whispers, softly, for his ears alone an apology.


	24. A Talk of Rivers

There's a crack in the tiled ceiling. She can see it, clearly now. Her vision is blurred by neither pain nor blood nor exhaustion and she can count the small specks in the ceiling. The heartbeat monitor beeps on, a telling sound. It might never stop. It might stop in minutes.

For the first time in years River thinks of exactly how vulnerable she is.

There's a window. A rooftop, she can see it through the slats in the blinds. A snipe could be on the rooftop, ready to pull the trigger and end her life.

She could die.

For the first time in almost a decade she feels the long fingers of fear creep into her throat. It's a very specific fear, this one. Not fear of spiders, or fear of pain, or fear of loss.

The fear of death.

The steady beeping falters.

The door opens. It is not a doctor with a white coat or a nurse in snoopy scrubs. It's her teacher. It's Aizawa, and at his side is All Might, massive and brilliant and River wants to weep and scream and fight as his light washes across her broken skin. It burns at the fractures under clever bandages.

"River my girl!" All Might steps in, shutting the door behind him. "It's good to see you awake! You gave us all quite a scare."

River looks up at him, at his grandeur and splendor, and she thinks that the skeleton that hides beneath with the sunken eyes and shattered rib cage is a million times more inspirational. Is a thousand times more human.

"We need you to tell us what happened," Aizawa is no nonsense as usual. River can appreciate that. She doesn't know where to start or what to say. Tell them what happened. What if what happened isn't something she wanted to share? What if what happens doesn't involve them?

Only, it does.

She is close to her teachers. She doesn't know for sure, but she thinks that they could kill her. She had become so open a vulnerable here. As if bad things don't exist. Well now the spell is over, the illusion of invincibility that comes with being semi-immortal and even more than that comes with attending UA.

How can she tell them all of what happens when she doesn't know how half of it happened herself?

She stays silent too long. A large hand drops onto her shoulder, gentle for all the strength she knows lies within. All Might's hand is warm and comforting and she wonders if he has some kind of empathy quirk as well in there. Something to calm the people around him and urge them to trust him.

"We need to know what happened, River. We need the truth."

River doesn't know what possesses her to look All Might in the eyes and, sounding more tired than truly angry, tell him, "Don't ask me for the truth when you're wearing that face."

The silence in the room is deafening. She looked down at her arms. The sensor on her index finger glowed faintly red. She can see see spider web scars racing up her arm. There's two IV's stuck into her arm intersecting them. She's in that fuzzy in-between place.

"Sorry," she amends, looking up at All Might. "You're always very hopeful. You smile a lot. But it doesn't always reach your eyes. They're very pretty, did you know? Fierce and kind. Like a lion," she scratches the side of her neck awkwardly.

"You're in shock, and on drugs" Aizawa tells her. He pulls a chair up next to her. "We tried to contact your parents."

"That won't get you anywhere," she tells him, looking at him instead of All Might, who looks very suspicious, "They're dead."

"You father is," Aizawa agrees. If he thinks anything of her blasé way of saying it he doesn't address it. "But your mother…"

"Wishes that I was."

All Might balks. "I'm sure that's not true!"

"That's why she named me River," she says. The words taste bitter still on her tongue. "Because she should have drowned me the day I was born."

She is greeted by silence. So she goes on.

"She wasn't wrong. If she had, a lot of bad things never would have happened. Those people, they're called the Damned. They were targeting me. _Are_ , targeting me. They're not done yet."

"Why?"

It's the first time she's heard All Might's voice drop to something serious and unpleasant. Not dangerous. He won't hurt her, she knows, but it's not jovial or bright or anything like that.

"Because I caused them pain. Chick Bradshaw, I kill the man who raised her. Who helped raise me. Jasper Reed. I cut him in half and took off the heads of his four lieutenants."

"Why?" Aizawa does his best but she can here the horror in his voice, buried deep.

"Because I was asked to. Because I was raised to kill, and he was the one I needed to stop. I was a Death Dealer," she shows them the tattoo, "For 'Black Lace' Anne Reed, Jasper's sister. Chick and I both belonged to her, before I left. So Chick hates me for that. Maggie hates me because I may not have killed her dad directly I'm still responsible for it. And Ray… Ray Kennedy. I was contracted to kill his parents too. I didn't know they had a kid."

"These people you keep talking about, Anne Reed , Jasper, I've never heard of them. "

"No. I would expect not. See I – " how did she say this? "I died. I was burnt alive. But I was owed a favor by a man named Michael. He used a quirk, I suppose, to send me somewhere where I had never done these things. Where I could change. Be more than just a knife in the shadows."

She smiles. Bitter and hard and cold.

"But we can't run from what we've done. And one death isn't enough to pay for hundreds of lives."

"That's not possible," Aizawa tells her.

"Stranger things have happened, haven't they?" She glances between the pair of them. She is cold but she is honest and earnest.

"This is … a lot, River," All Might tells her slowly. "It's hard to believe."

"It makes sense though," Aizawa admits. "It's weird but, it's the most logical explanation. You dad's dead. Your mom ignored our phone calls and there's only a bare minimum paper trail for your whole life. At the same time, there's no one else in the world who could be you."

"We're going to have to talk about this. With the police and the principal," All Might says.

River shrugs. "Go ahead. But you don't need to worry about my status as a student. I don't belong in a hero school."

The two men look at each other before they stand and prepare to leave. Right before he turns to the door Aizawa puts a hand on her shoulder and gives it a gentle squeeze that she can barely feel through the haze of chemicals in her blood.

"Get some rest, River. We'll talk to you soon."

River watches the men leave, her yellow eyes on their backs.

* * *

 _Death is terrible for anyone. Young or old, good or evil, it's all the same. Death is impartial. There is no especially terrible death. That's why death is so fearsome. Your deeds, your age, your personality, your wealth, your beauty: they are all meaningless in the face of death. Sunako Kirishiki Shiki_

* * *

"I was right."

Aizawa looked around at the others in the room. The police officer, Principal Nezu, All Might, and Silence. The group of them were sitting in a small room on the third floor, the door locked tight to keep their privacy and Silence's quirk in play to keep them from being overheard. All Might sat in his small, skeletal body and watched them with shadowed eyes. There was a furrow in his brow and worry that was easier to read in this body than the other one. He was worried. Aizawa didn't blame him.

Even though he'd known that River was some kind of assassin, or at least raised by one, he hadn't been ready to hear the truth. He hadn't been ready to head her talk about her mother like that, or hear her so readily admit to hurting people.

He remembered the girl who had thrown herself with reckless abandon and burning gold in her eyes at a mammoth who had crushed her body with one swing of it's arm. He remembered the girl wept over his broken body, whispering apologies over and over while he lay prone and barely conscious. He remembered the bleeding girl who, with soft and sorry eyes had guided a horror struck Todoroki out of the stadium.

They didn't match the closed off, hollowed shell that sat in the hospital room.

"Yes," Nezu agreed with him, crossing his fuzzy little arms over his chest. As always, he was unperturbed by the turn of events. "Honestly, I thought something like this might be the case. I think that she's not just from America, but from a different type of America. A parallel dimension, perhaps, and this 'Michael's quirk is to transfer people or things between them. It was obvious that she was trained, and that she was holding back for quite some time. I had been trying to figure out who and why, but there was nothing substantial for me to go off of."

"I don't get it," All Might shook his head, "How can such a sweet young girl have been a killer?"

"A sweet young girl that get's attached rather easily," Nezu reminded him. "If she was telling the truth, and if she started training as an assassin early enough, it could have caused her ability to empathize and rationalize behaviors to develop abnormally."

"I tried calling her mother. There is a Colleen Mayfair in California, but her daughter's name is Brook. When I asked about River, she told me she only has one daughter and hung up," Aizawa said helpfully.

"Even if everything she said is true, what do we do not?" Tsukauchi, the detective and one of All Might's friends, asked. "There's not record of her hurting anyone, and near as I can tell none of the people she mentioned, Ray Kennedy, Chick Bradshaw, or Maggie Cook, ever even existed here. We can't charge her for any crimes, and honestly, burning alive sounds like enough of a punishment as it is."

"I agree. Perhaps we should offer her some time away," Nezu suggested, "Before the summer training camp. She can go back to America for a few weeks, and think on what she wants to do next before she makes the decision to drop out of UA. We've seen that she has the ability, the drive, and the potential to be a hero. It would be a shame to let all that go to waste."

"You would really trust a girl who admits to killing people around your students?" Silence asked, looking around them.

"You were the one who told me to ask her for the truth," Aizawa reminded him.

"Yeah, but I'm surprised anyways. You aren't worried she'll go off the deep end and hurt one of them?"

"At this point I think it's more likely she'll kill villains who try to attack them than the students themselves," Aizawa mused with a darker humor.

"I think we should give her the option to return to school," All Might announced. Aizawa wasn't entirely surprised. All Might was a bleeding heart. "She wants to be a hero, and she has come here seeking a second chance and her own redemption. As her teachers, as heroes, it's our duty to help her in a noble endeavor like this one."

Silence fell for a couple of minutes.

"That was a lovely speech All Might," Nezu praised. "If there are no objections?"

No one raised a hand.

"Wonderful!" Nezu clapped his paws together. "Then in that case, why doesn't one of you go an tell her the news?"

In the end, Aizawa let All Might go see the girl. He looked like he needed to. There was a weight on his shoulders, and while there always was the weight of the world this was the weight of a river crashing down on him. Aizawa would talk to her later.

All Might left the room, ballooning up into his muscular form before he walked out into the rest of the hospital. His time was growing shorter and shorter. He could barely hold it together for a full class period.

The hallways of the hospital were blessedly quiet. The PA announcements were the only things that interrupted the sound of his own foot steps. A quiet hospital is a good hospital. It means there's less sick people, less injured people. He stops in front of the door and when he peers into the window that shows the inside he can see River sitting right where he'd left her. The doctors had done a good job. Her skin wasn't split, and the scars were healing nicely but he could see that they would never disappear entirely.

He wasn't there when they brought her in. It was Aizawa and his friend, Silence, who had followed her to the building where these 'Damned' had taken her friends and tormented them. They had cut off Uraraka's finger and sent it to River in a box. He could only imagine how she felt.

He knocked twice on the door before he let himself in, and when her gaze lifted to him he remembered her words.

She thought he was like a lion.

All Might stepped into the room and shut the door quietly behind him. One of her IV bags was empty. He wondered what it was for. River had been out for a few days.

"Welcome back," she managed a smile. It's a phantom thing and the sight of it brings him more pain than comfort. Toshinori took the chair that Aizawa had vacated when they left, close enough now to see the silver spiderwebs that cracked across her temple and crowned her face. She had been covered entirely in blood, Aizawa had told him.

"How are you feeling?" he asked before he went on. He switched to English, only mildly accented even after all these years.

River looked at him. He saw a flash of indecision in her eyes. How could she have been a killer, when she was so very easy to read? She was an open book.

"Afraid," she said at last. "They had a way to actually hurt me. To negate my healing factor. I don't know how."

Toshinori's smile slips from his face. "They pulled the bullets out. They weren't real bullet's," he told her. "They were made of bones."

What little color was in her face drained right out before his very eyes. Her breath caught.

"You know what they are."

It wasn't a question but she nodded anyways, her multi-colored hair falling around her face in messed, tangled curls.

"They're the bones of my father. The bones of Quinton Taro."

Toshinor felt sick. He can see the anger and the fear wage a war inside of her. "Those would negate your quirk. A loophole. Your father cared about you, and you about him."

"And so he can kill me. His bones can kill me, and they turned them into bullet's… but why the trap? It would have made more sense to set up a sniper outside my apartment, or the school, and just shoot me while they had that chance. Unless…"

"Unless?" Toshinori leaned closer.

"Well. After a certain distance bullets loose speed, force, and accuracy. The lower the quality of the metal, the sooner that happens. Lead is actually a pretty useless material for most modern day guns. They use steel, but lead was used first. That's why it's 'eat lead' and stuff. Bone isn't nearly as tough as steel, or even lead. They'd have to be close for it to be accurate. And if they used too high powered of a gun they'd end up vaporizing it before it could hit. That's why they had old school revolvers instead of automatics or rifles or something."

"I didn't know you knew so much about guns."

"I used to use them. I hate them," she told him, the truth of the statement burning in her eyes.

Toshinori ignored the sliver of ice the worked its way into his spine. His ribs were starting to hurt from being expanded for so long. He was pushing how much time he could safely stay in this body.

A wash of shame went over his skin. River was being honest with him. Was baring her truth, her fear, and her anger to him. And he stood above her, a false, half smile in place.

He cleared his throat. "I talked to principal Nezu. He wants you to take some time off. Go back to America, and get some perspective. Then when you come back you can make a decision. Whether to leave UA, or stay on as a student."

River faltered. Her confidence faded and in its place he found a teenager, lost and confused and afraid for her life.

"Wait. He still wants me to attend?"

"Of course he does. We all do. Whether you feel like you deserve it or not, whether you've done bad things in the past or not, you have what it takes to become a find hero. I've seen it in you, as I have in all of your classmates. You could do great things, River," he laid a large hand on her shoulder. There's the smallest tremor in his hand, and he could see from the look she shot him that she noticed it. What exactly did she know about him?

"You're way to optimistic," she told him.

"Perhaps. Even still, please think about it. Take a trip, get some air. Go home, or as close as you can."

"Oklahoma," she told him, "I'm from Hopewell Oklahoma."


	25. Born in the USA

**Kinda short, sorry guys**

* * *

There was a small airport in the city that would fly her to Tokyo before she moved on to the USA. Aizawa escorted her to it from her apartment. Technically he was giving her a ride in his car, but River was pretty sure that it was mostly to keep an eye on her. Would he send someone after her to watch her while she was in America?

They parked in the third parking lot up and River went in the back to get her backpack. She travelled well, compacted all of the clothes and toiletries into just one go bag. She tossed it over her shoulder and stepped back while Aizawa slammed the trunk closed. She patted herself down, doing a check. Keys, wallet, phone, passport. Her ticket was on her phone too.

"Got everything?" Aizawa asked. River nodded.

"I'm good to go."

She expected him to just drop her off there. But no, he walked her all the way inside. Past the checked baggage line, and down to the underground train that would take her to the terminals and to security.

She almost made it into the line to get through before a voice broke through the low din of chatter that surrounded her. She turned away from the man in front of her, loaded down with two strollers and a toddler with six arms choking him from behind.

It was a familiar sound. She'd heard it a thousand times, every day walking into the school and some days outside of it. Bright and cheerful and bubbly, but now tinged with worry.

She turned around just in time to see Uraraka fling herself through a crowd, Shinso and Todoroki and Yaomomo at her heels. River caught her in her arms, stumbling back in surprise. Her arms wrapped fiercely around River, squeezing her ribs hard. River stared over her head at the others, stunned. She could see Aizawa stand behind them, looking just a touch smug.

She felt played, but not in a bad way.

"What are you doing here?" River asked, looking down at the slighter girl. She still had bandaids on her face and one of her hands was bandaged but she was there and she was holding onto River with everything that she had. The others flanked her, tall Yaomomo with her wild hair, tired but fond Shinso, and Todoroki, scared but set.

"You have to come back," Uraraka pulled back to look up at her, fierce and determined, a fire in her eyes. She gripped Rivers loose shirt tightly. "You have to promise that you're going to come back once you've found what you're looking for."

"I- what?" River stared at her, stunned. Trying to understand. She had to promise to come back? But, Uraraka had been hurt because of her. They all had been, stolen and traumatized and beaten by the Damned and what was worse (and how selfish was that thought?) was that they had seen _her_. They had heard her.

Her threats, her horrible truth.

But here they stood. Before her, telling her to come back.

"Uraraka. Ochaco."

"I'm serious," she told her firmly.

"We all are," Shinso added.

"We have questions," Yaomomo assured her.

"But we need you to come back to get answers," Todoroki finished. River wondered if they had rehearsed this little speech.

"Okay," she said. The word felt strange, heavy on her tongue no matter how easy it was to say.

"Okay."

Only when she had agreed did Uraraka, still looking ready for a fight, release her.

At last River turned away from the heroes-to-be, from her friends, and step back into line.

* * *

 _She was not supposed to be in his house._

 _Of this, Ray was certain. For one thing, he lived alone. He had no girlfriend, nor boyfriend, nor roommate. He had never given his key to anyone else and he hadn't had anyone else in his apartment since he moved out of student housing._

 _For another thing, he had no idea who this lady was._

 _She was tall, willowy. Her eyes were a sort of hazel, her hair was plain brown. She wasn't remarkable in any way shape or form if it wasn't for one key factor._

 _There was a scar on her face that raced from her temple to the corner of her jaw. It framed her face in a silver carving that made Ray's fingers itch. Scars were a sign of a job not finished, of a messy physician and he hated them deeply._

 _She sat at his counter on a bar stood, twirling a drink in her hand that she had to have brought with her. He didn't have martini glasses. He didn't even have alcohol._

 _"_ _Uh. Who are you?" he finally asked. He dropped his back on the floor and the books thumped solidly. There was no one who lived under him, he was on the bottom floor, half submerged in earth outside. It was cheap, and that was what was important._

 _Except some security would have been nice if it meant he wouldn't have random women sitting in when he came back from class._

 _His last roommate would have made a dirt joke but the fact of the matter was there was a stranger in his goddamn house._

 _Apartment._

 _Whatever._

 _"_ _That's not important," she said. She set her glass down on his counter with a small click. "I'm here to talk about something else. River Kelly."_

 _Ray felt his throat close. His ribs squeezed. He'd been shoving that name away from his mind for so long, hearing it made him feel cold and hot all at once._

 _"_ _You remember who she is, don't you?"_

 _It was kind of hard to forget._

 _"_ _I think you need to leave. Now, please."_

 _"_ _Manners," she smiled at him, thin and sharp as a knife, "How quaint. No, I don't think you really want me to leave. See, Raymond, I'm here with an offer."_

 _She looked at him, her eyes cold and hard._

 _"_ _How would you like to avenge your parents?"_

* * *

The flight from Tokyo to Oklahoma had two pass overs. One in Washington, where it was cloudy but not raining, and another in Denver where snow scattered across the ground. In each airport it was about the same.

People packed together in the security lines, tourist trap shops advertising for the cities. Each gate had its sitting area and in those areas there were all kinds of people. Parents with their children absorbed in tablets and DS's, older people with books and bags. Some came prepared, like River did, with sandwiches and chips and packed snacks and lunches. Others left in the time until their flights to go the food courts and get Panda or McDonalds, or in the case of DIA a restaurant that sold crepes the size of a baby.

It was almost twenty hours before she stepped foot in the dry air of Tulsa once more.

Out the window the land stretched out, green and totally flat.

River had been gone for so long she had almost forgotten that it was so flat. There wasn't a mountain or a hill in sight, and the humidity of japan was long gone. No oceans or beaches or anything. Just miles and miles of flat fields and, out a different window, the only tall buildings around were those of The City itself.

River made her way through the airport, following the signs. It was more high tech than the last time she's been in Oklahoma City. She could barely remember it, being shipped off to a foster home that specialized in 'problem children'. Five years old, barely tall enough to sit in a car without a car seat. Her escort, she didn't remember her name or what she was even really called, wouldn't hold her hand but she would drag her by her wrist and she didn't so much talk _to_ River as she talked _at_ her.

Or maybe that was just what happened with age. You remembered more cruelty than was there.

River picked her way through colorful crowds of Americans. The relief of being around people who spoke mostly English was indescribable. She got all the way to an internet port almost all the way out. She booked a rental car and made her way to a kiosk as soon as she had finished it.

She took the keys that were given to her, for a white Nissan maxima and left.

She started the car and drove out the winding roads of the airport. Out into the flatlands of Oklahoma, the land she had been born in.

After she'd been taken in by Taro, when she was older and could think of the state without feeling like she was going to puke, she'd looked herself up. Looked up the reports. Hopewell did not have a hospital. She was born in her grandmother's house, to Colleen Mayfair and Clyde Kelly. Clyde was twenty at the time, and Colleen was seventeen by a week.

The house was two story, ranch style, sold before River was orphaned to a cute couple with two dogs named Schade, River had no memories of it. It sat in Hopewell, on Dearing Lane, across the street from the town Gazebo where every year they would parade show horses around in a prancing trot.

River had loved them dearly.

There were no horses to be found in Los Angeles, where Colleen had run off to and where River had inevitably followed after.

Rive drove past horses. Down the highway towards the darkening sky. West, and west, and westwards beyond.

Hopewell lay, as it always did, a quiet little town to the east of Oklahoma City.


	26. Child of the West Wind

_"_ _Follow your heart, Little child of the west wind. Follow the voice that is calling you home."_

"Follow your dreams, But always remember me,"

 _"I am your brother under the sun."_

River let the song die out as she stepped out of the car and into the dusty, dry air. Across her for miles stretched nothing but red rocks and desert dust. A few scattered bits of sage brush and clingy cacti. None of the ones that looked like they had their hands up, just the short, fat little guys and the spikes of aloe-vera wannabes stood neighboring scrub. Off in the distance she could see the remnants of a ghost town, one of hundreds scattered across the countryside.

She had landed in desolation, crossed green rivers and endless cornfields, until she finally stood where she needed to be.

The butte was small, all things considered. Taller than it was wide, it stretched only twenty or so stories high above her head, it had less of a flat top and more one that went jagged down the right side in a peculiar shape.

Her sharp eyes swept across the surface, until they found what she knew already to be there.

A fault in the stone, a small crevice in the red rocks. A natural opening, and the only one. Even from here she couldn't find any other fractures or dents that would lead inwards, and no tracks in the dust existed save her own.

Still, she walked onwards, until she could place her hand against the sun-warm stone. The chill in her bones sunk out, replaced by the comfort of the stone. It was worn almost soft from the years of ocean and wind, and now the sun beat down and scorched it. Lizards scuttled across the surface, well out of her reach, and she knew the BLM had land here set aside for the remaining mustangs.

She and Jess had made a game of trying to catch them, when they were young and foolish, and had nearly been kicked in the head for their troubles.

Shedding her boots, River planted her foot on a small lip on the steep side and pushed herself up. She grasped as near invisible hand holds, climbing steadily up the face. She could have used her powers to make a stair case, but it felt wrong somehow.

She knew this tower well.

The official name was Lobos Rock, but River had once known it as Windrose. A lifetime ago, this rock had held the base that she and the others lived in, as a part of ATLAS and REACH. It had been their base, their playground, and their home. Hollowed out from the inside and built up with rooms and hard walls and false lights, she had known it for what it truly was, not what they wanted the world to see it as. Just another rock in the desert.

Here, in this world, it wasn't hollow. There was no bolt holes, no windows cleverly disguised as tafoni on the rocks. There was just red.

The sun beat hard against her back, burning through her skin. By the time she crested the top it was high in the sky, burning away any lingering morning dew. River found herself sitting on top of the rock, sitting crosslegged and watching the world spread out before her.

She hadn't seen Windrose in over ten years.

Her last memories of it were fire and rubble, and she standing alone in the wreckage, begging a god that she didn't believe in to let her find one. Just one person, besides herself, still alive.

Her prayers had gone unanswered, and now she sat atop that very rock, years later, and watched the tiny ribbons of blue and green in the distance. The Salida river, dried up before the spring storms came again, shrunken and small.

She planted her palms on the rock and leaned back, looking up at the sun until her vision danced and blurred and its brilliance had burned its way into her eye lids.

The air smelled cleaner here. A hundred miles from the nearest city, a million miles from Mustafu and the people there.

The wind blew through her hair, hot and dry against her skin and achingly familiar.

She could have sworn, with her vision gone, that gun-calloused fingers brushed her hair behind her ear and Gabe's voice carried with the breeze.

 _I had a dream  
Of the wide open praire  
I had a dream  
Of pale morning sky  
I had a dream  
That we flew on golden wings  
And we were the same, just the same  
You and I_

 _Follow your heart  
Little child of the west wind  
Follow the voice  
That's calling you home  
Follow your dreams  
But always remember me  
I am your brother  
And under the sun_

She smiled despite herself and opened her eyes, healed from blindness in mere moments.

Gabe had had a thing for Bryan Adams, but it was Taro who had taught her to sing.

"Maybe," she said to the sun, "I should start warning mentor and father figures that they're likely to die."

The sun, like god, didn't seem to pay her much mind as it went about shining gayly above her head.

River closed her eyes again and lay in the sun. She didn't know what she was here to do, but she knew that the answers she needed did not lie in Hopewell. Hopewell was where she was born. It was not her home.

Wherever Taro had been, that was her home, once before. Here, in this place, but a world away was her home. The apartment in japan, waiting for her with one eccentric neighbor and a cat he was being trusted to care for.

Even with all of that, what was she meant to do here?

The Damned had followed her. Somehow, some way, they had found her here. If angels, existed, what else did? If they hadn't stopped shy of interdimensional travel, they would never stop. River would have to kill them to get them to stop. Hopefully. If she was lucky.

She shied away from the idea.

She didn't want to. She was trying to be different from what she had been. She was trying to be a hero, not a hitter.

But she would always be one. Her first thought was always, still, how easy it would be to just go ahead and kill someone instead of bothering with apprehension or arrest. Her eyes were still the same.

Scorpion eyes.

River rolled onto her side.

Maybe things would be easier if she said fuck it. If she left everything behind and went to be a hermit in the woods, or volunteered for some deep sea bull shit. If she left society behind and just, didn't look back.

That's what people like her were supposed to do, wasn't it? Abandon everything and go to live in solitary misery.

The idea of leaving everyone behind, of never speaking to anyone or even _trying_ to make friends again, sunk heavy into her stomach. She felt so sick she threw the idea away immediately.

She would rather die.

She opened her eyes and sat up, looking out over the landscape. It stretched out before her, to a horizon hazy with heat. The ghost town settled in the distance and River could have sworn she saw someone moving in it.

A second later she realized that there was.

Someone was walking, way off in the distance, in a town that had been deserted for a hundred years.

Curiosity drove her.

River scrambled down the side of the mountain, ignoring however much skin she left behind her in her haste. It was back by the time she had turned to the rippling phantom town. She left the car behind rushed across the desert, to the deserted town, full of phantoms and memories long lost.

It didn't occure to her to take the jeep. She crossed the earth, stretched out before her. The sun warmed her feet and her hair and her face. She stepped into the town in time to see a strange woman. Old, half bent under the weight of time passed. Her face was mostly wrinkles, save the dark Spanish eyes within. Something about her was undeniably familiar.

River walked up to her, barefeet red in the dust. It had started to change cropped up with scraggly grass. A tumble weed stood still nearby, growing. So there was water somewhere around here. The old woman stood beside a jeep, filled with groceries. The front right tire looked like it needed air and it was making a faint clicking sound, like someone clacking coconuts together.

The old woman looked up at her. Silver hair was bound tightly around her head in a knot. Her eyes were dark, deep, upturned, but still somewhat obscured by the shine of her glasses. River felt her blood beat more prominently under her skin, like it was trying to escape her.

She pushed the feeling away when the woman bared her with a fierce scowl.

"Well, girl?" she said suddenly, her voice the crack of a whip. River stood up straight. "Don't just stand there, are you going to help with the groceries or not?"

"Groceries," River repeated dumbly. In the back seat of the jeep, one that on closer inspection was dimpled with bullet holes, were sacks of groceries in paper bags.

"That's what I said, isn't it?" the old lady pointed an accusing finger at the bags, as if they'd offended her.

"Right," River gathered her arms full of bags, unwilling to take more than one trip. She could see cheeses, tomatos, and flat breads. A jar of coffee beans, and a pack of .22s. She'd missed America. It was so weird, not having active shooter drills in UA.

The old woman turned from River and walked further into the ghost town, that was looking more and more like what River remembered. She felt like if she turned the wrong corner Gen would be sitting on a porch roof with a pipe held delicately between his lips.

Instead, she turned the corner and there sat a little house between all the rest. There was nothing different about it, save the fact that it was stucco, complete with a fine red tile roof. It was small, perhaps big enough for a family of three, four if their squeezed from the time of the gold rush and the desperate advance west. It was different from the other houses, built during the war that schools didn't like to acknowledge. Compared to the crumbling colonial houses around them, it was upright and tight walled. River could see from the street that the old grocery store was missing its its floor, caved in totally and covered in oddly growing straw.

"I didn't catch your name," River said, trying to salvage some control of the situation. The old woman lead her up to the house, pulling out a key chain. It only had one key on it, and a red charm shaped like a sword. It glinted wetly in the sun. As if it was covered in blood and not paint, dark and crimson wounds. River looked back up at the door as it opened, and the old lady stepped inside. River climbed the steps to follow her.

"Call me abuela," the old lady said.

River crossed the threshold of the small stucco house and craned her head up, up, up to the ceiling. The door slamed behind her, a shot in her back.

"Abuala," she said numbly. _What a large house you have_.

* * *

River sits in the small home. Small on the outside but inside the roof expands upwards and it's nothing like the adobe on the outside with red roof and rough walls. Inside metal plates reach for the sky and in between stainless steel tables carefully lined with gun after gun and matching bullets there's a plain couch with small cactus patterns. The shooting range stretches hundred meters out, and backs up to the residential area. A kitchen sits in the corner, the couch in another. There's a dining room table, one that's covered in bits of metals and buckets of liquid that River can't even begin to identify. A single door sits against the east wall, contrary to the one she'd come in through with her arms ladened with groceries.

River has never felt so out of place in her life. She sits cross legged in couch, a chipped mug in hand that advertises for a toursist town ten miles down the road.

They don't talk. Her and the shriveled woman called Abuela, and River wonders if this is how all Abuela's are. Weird and quiet but insistent on shoving food and drink on strange girls who help them carry their groceries, not completely willingly.

Gabe and Jess had told her, once, of their own Abuela. Neither of them was her actual grand child but she treated them like they were. Short tempered and dangerous, they called her, and River could imagine no one better for the two of them.

This Abuela isn't very different.

River doesn't really look at her. Instead her focus is on a rubber band that lays on the floor some three feet away. Eventually her cup is drained and she stands to wash it. On her way, she reached for the rubber band and it jerks away from her fingers.

She stills, hand a hair's breadth away from a scorpion. It's tail is raised, right by her finger tips. She waits.

Finally, it lowers its stinger and wanders into the corner, where River watches it hide in the shadow of a chair.

"It didn't sting me," she says, speaking for the first time in an eternity.

Abuela scoffs at her.

"He didn't want to waste his venom. "

"But, his nature is to sting," she said, the words feel hollow in her mouth, sticking behind her teeth.

"It may be his nature, but he still picks what he does."

River can't say why, but she feels like weeping. Instead, she smiles and stands and washes out her mug.

"You are not a gun girl," Abuela says abruptly.

"No," River agrees. She is not. She hates them, in fact. When she holds them all she can see is red, red, red and she can feel her hair sticky with blood long dried.

Abuela narrows her old eyes at the not-so-young girl.

"You think to loudly. If you let grief weigh you down forever, you'll drown when the water starts to rise."

"What?" River lifts her chin. "No, I don't hold on to the past. I don't grieve. "

"Then there's your problem!" Abuela points a cleaning rod at her nose. "You didn't grieve and now you're stuck in the sand. _Nina tonta,_ you're filling your head with tears you need to let go. Didn't Gabe teach you these things?"

"No, he never-" she stops. Her heart stops too and she lifts her eyes to Abuela's. The shine on her glasses fades, at last, and River is struck with blackness that shoots right into her soul. She sucks in a sharp breath. "You knew Gabe."

"I did," the old woman says. "I made his guns. And Jess', and Gen's Salvation. Gave was going to bring you to me next, beforeshe was lost to the fire. You know who I am now, little coyote?"

She can barely breathe enough to say, "Abuela Muerte. "

She can see death behind the old woman's eyes. Thousands, falling, dying, fighting. Millions. Swords. Guns. She makes them and sends the best killers out holding her weapons in hand.

" _Señora de la Guerra._ "


	27. City of Angels

Se _ñ_ ora de la Guerra. The Lady of War.

Those who knew her well knew her as Abuela Muerte, but River had a feeling that she had been known as many other things. She must have had a name, before Spanish existed as a language, before latin had been invented.

River feels strange, sitting on her couch, watching this woman as old as civilization move about her house. Her head was spinning. It hurt, but there was some strange relief in her too. This meant that was wasn't alone. She wasn't the only person in the world with power that didn't come from a quirk. And it meant that there were far worse things than her that existed in the world.

"You're a horseman, right?" River asks, turning the word over in her head. A horseman. Did that mean the apocalypse was real? The antichrist? Was Adam Young running around somewhere with his bike and his hell hound and his two shitty guardians?

"Of course I am," she said with a sniff. She turned to the wall and when she moved aside River realized there was a furnace there. Heat boiled off of it, buffering her body. That had not been there before.

"How- I mean, what does that mean? What else exists?"

"You've already seen devils and angels. And you are the Sentinel. You should not be so surprised," Abuela scolded her. Her dark eyes were hidden once more behind her glasses, but River kept looking at them, like she was going to see the War going on again.

"Devils?" she repeated. "You mean in new York? That's what they were?"

"Of course! What else would they be?"

"I don't know! I don't know nay of this!"

"And who's fault is that? You've been a Sentinel for twenty years, and you didn't go looking for any answers. You didn't care or you just thought they'd fall into your lap, isn't that right?"

River cringed, caught. Yes, that was right.

"Then, who was the woman I got the Favor off of?"

Abuela didn't stop moving. River watched her fill a bucket with shards of metal before she pushed that into the fire and let it simmer. As she moved about the room it changed to her whims, until there was a long, sturdy table, and an anvil. Hammers, too, lined the table and tongs.

"Awan," she said, like that was supposed to explain anything.

River stared at her. "Like, the celtic muse?"

Abuela looked at her like she was completely stupid. River was starting to feel like she was. Or crazy. Or both.

"Not Awen. Aw- _a_ n. Jumelia. The wife of Cain."

Cain. Cain and Abel, the guy who killed his brother. The first person to kill anyone ever. River had met his wife, had held her while she died and while she pressed a cinder of a favor into her breast bone. River scratched at the back of her neck.

"I don't understand. How was she still alive?"

"She wasn't. Isn't. She and her husband, and all their descendants wear the Mark of Cain. Their children are mortal, but banned from certain places and things, but the two of them live and live again. Any harm done unto Cain is returned sevenfold unto who ever delt it, and any kindness done unto his wife is worthy of one of seven favors," she flipped her gnarled fingers at River.

River tried to digest this. She'd heard the whole Mark of Cain business before, but that had been from Supernatural, and, worse, an old justification of slavery. Supposidly the Mark of Cain was dark skin, so it was okay to throw his descendants into chains and do whatever horrific acts someone felt like.

So. Demons. Angels. Horsemen. Cain and Abel and their wives.

"You called me _a_ Sentinel." Something about that told River than she wasn't talking about her hero name. "What did you mean?"

"I'm not a library, _girl_!" Abuela walked towards her and grabbed her arm, hard. Long nails pierce into her wrist and River hisses.

"No, but I have no one else I can ask, now do I?" River retorted, frowning deeper. Abuela pulled away from her, leaving bloody gashes in her arms to heal, and materialized a mold for the metal and poured it in. River watched her work it over, watched her drip Rivers own bloo into the ruby hot metal, trying to make sense of what she was doing. She kept turning it over and over, smacking with the hammer flat, heating it again, turning it over, and repeating. Under her breath she was muttering. River couldn't catch the words, but they didn't sound much like Spanish.

Cold and hot rolled up Rivers spin uncomfortably.

She was wise enough to hold her tongue until Abuela had put the metal back into the forge one more time, pulled it back out, and shaped it. She dropped it into a bucket of cold water. Steam erupted, surrounding the old lady, but for an instant River saw nothing more than smoke billowing up from the ground. Smoke and death and War.

She swallowed thickly. Finally, Abuela lifted her dark, dark eyes to River. They were narrowed, and some kind of mischief gleamed within that set River's nerves on end. She did not like that at all.

"You should go back to where you started, _River_ _Quinton_. The answers you seek lie there, with another."

River faltered. Back where she started? Hopewell? No, Hopewell was where River Kelly was born. Abuela said Quinton. The first place she had ever met her father, her real father, her Taro, was under Peppers bar. In LA. A world away.

"I don't know how to get there," she said slowly. Abuella pulled whatever she had been working on out of the water and set it on the table again. She took the thing and lay it into a small purple tectangle box that she flipped closed with a definitive snap.

Go to LA. Somewhere there would have more answers for her.

"Abuela," River began, "Who am I supposed to find there?"

"You aren't supposed to find anything or anyone. If you find them, you find them, but your shuttle is far off the loom." She turned and handed River the purple box, attached to a belt and a single shoulder strap. "Gabe wanted this for you," she said, her voice softening ever so slightly.

River curled her fingers around it and brought it to her chest, holding it close. It didn't feel like Gabe. Didn't smell like him. But it was more than she'd had before.

"Thank you," she said, meaning every word. Abuela scoffed and fairly beat her out of the house with a broom. She stepped out, into the sun, and felt her lungs empty of air.

Windrose was gone from the distance.

River started walking.

* * *

She knew, logically, that walking from Windrose to LA should have taken at least two weeks. Probably more. For all the state was mostly desert and almost always in a state of draught, the red sand did give way to scrub dotted mountains and snow scattered peaks.

The ice had melted with the summer sun, true, but it all seemed to pass River by in minutes, hours, and soon she was walking down the mountains again, , through forests and smaller towns, until she stepped into La Canada Flintridge. She attracted more attention there, covered in red dust, barefoot, than she did when she finally reached LA proper. Not West Hollywood, not San Bernidita. LA.

No matter where she looked, she didn't see anyone with impossible features. Naturally pointed ears, horns, rainbow styles of skin. She alone had eyes that were not blue or brown or green.

River walked, slowly. She knew this city. She knew these streets. But in the twelve years its been since she's left the game, things have changed.

When Anne took over the city, gathered its gangs and ruled its underground, she had changed things that the governers and mayors, and all the council men never had. The city was cleaner, safer, crime was more organized and fewer uninvolved people were caught in the cross fires. Even Skid Row became nothing more than a front, a place for goods and services to be exchanged in broad daylight before its population went underground during the night. River had come to the city in the middle of all that, when Anne was reigning in the unruly and the rebellious. Those that bowed to her whims were allowed to live. Those who didn't died.

Now, in just over a decade, the city had begun to slip back into it's former 'glory'.

Rich people who turned up their noses, and everyone else scraping by. By whatever means necessary.

River tried not to focus on that. She passed by the fifth advertisement for a new diet, the latest and greatest, and made her way up the steps. To the bar. There was a simple sign, and inside there was only one familiar face.

Standing behind the bar, his hair more like salt now a days, was Pepper.

When she walked in he almost dropped the bottle he was holding, spilling gin all over the counter. His customer, a lady in pale pink, scrambled back from the mess, getting out of the way. River took her place, helping mop up the mess she'd helped to make. Pepper's eyes were huge, locked onto her.

"River," he said. He looked around quickly. The old door to the underground was covered in dust. The fighting days were over, it seemed. The bar smelled like beer and cigarettes, and the faint stench of poppers. River tried not to wrinkle her nose. She'd always hated how pot smelled.

"Hey, Pepper. Been a minute," she handed him the napkins she'd used to clean up and he threw them away. He was tense, stiff. River didn't blame him. She hadn't seen him in a long time. And the last he knew, she was a traitor.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, back to her. There's not a phone in his hands, at least. A tension falls across them, unnoticed by the handful of other people hanging around.

River doesn't know. Not really. She props her chin in her hand, looking around. The tv screen switches from the basketball game to an advertisement for that same diet. The spokes person and the founder smiles at the camera. The smile makes River's eyes hurt. A scale floats in the background of the commercial, far too cheerful. River remembers pain, from her last time here, but more than that she remembered the gnawing ache in her stomach.

She had come so close to starving to death-

Starving. _Oh_.

"I wanted to say thanks," River said at last. "You were nice to me when you didn't have to be. It… meant something, I guess." Kindness in those days was rare.

River slipped off of the bar stool and brushed herself off. Pepper turned around to look at her. He looked so old, and she still looked like a teenager. Time passed, and yet she remained. Pepper was the only one she'd known that was still alive. It was so strange. So surreal.

"Wait," Pepper called. She stopped, turning halfway back. Pepper looked at her, his eyes dark and intense.

"You shouldn't be here. Soemones gonna kill you."

River cracked a smile. "Heaven and Hell help the one who tries," she said, and walked back out.

She carefully avoided cracked glass on the streets, dodging a couple of needles. She knew where to go now.

The building was tall. It towered up above River, but it wasn't the tallest around by any means of the word. She could see the list of businesses inside the door. Lawyers, chiropracters, and finally the dietitian.

She walked inside, bypassing any one else in the building with her little vanishing act. She climbed into the elevator and hit the button, waiting to be lifted up into the air. Fifteen stories up, she got off and and wantered over to the door labelled with the scales. She hadn't been paying much attention to what the advertisements said, but by the door was a rack of pamphlets that she took down and flipped through.

The diet cut out all fats and and sugars, leaving only proteins behind. It encouraged veggies that were low in fats and carbs, and relied on an almost entire vegan diet.

River wrinkled her nose at the idea. Diets were the dumbest shit ever. Fat kept you healthy and not dead.

River let herself into the office, leaving red footprints behind her still.


	28. Horsemen

River passed everyone by, searching for the face on the commercial. She had no evidence to tell her than the person she sought was here. Just the strange feeling of being in a dream, and knowing nowhere else was there to go. Only here, only into this office building, when people moved with pamphlets and talked quickly. Sales reps, office temps, just plain people leading plain lives. Most of them probably had no idea what they were doing. Who they were working for.

River passed them all by. She had no interest in them. She didn't care about these people, so average. Not a quirk among them. Not a killer in the room, save for her.

"Hey, who's tracking in dirt?" someone asked. River ignored them entirely, going on barefoot across cold black tile. She turned down a small hallways, neatly avoiding the other people coming through after her and on her opposite. They didn't notice her, but when she stepped into an office at the end, someone did.

He had a soft face, long and regtangular. Straight nosed, with a widows peak for his sharply trimmed black hair. His suit was trimmed and tailored, his eyes were wide and dark. Long, nimble fingers stopped above a key board.

He looked right at her, and River felt her stomach ache just looking at him. She could see the eyes of lost children, belly's swollen with malnutrition but still horribly empty. Women staring in mirrors, watching their bodies waste away, hoping it'll happen faster. Men begging for handfuls of change while their hands shook. She blinked and a grin split his face, perfectly straight teeth bared at her.

"You must be River Kelly," he said.

"Quinton," she corrected without much thought. "You're-"

"Emanuel," he said, before she could go on. "Emanuel Chevalnoir."

It took River a second to translate that. She wasn't as good at French as she was at Spanish. Her brows furrowed.

"Emanuel Black Horse? Really?" The horseman was not normal.

He was much more genial than Abuela. Friendlier, a charisma to him that drew River in. She could see how so many people would listen to him like this about something as crazy as a diet.

"People are more likely to listen to a Frenchmen when it comes to food," he said casually.

She let her shoulders drop. That was true enough. People were so weird when it came to food, and weight, and of all things stereotypes.

"You're going in the wrong order, you know," Emanuel said casually. He waved his hand and the door slammed shut behind her. River looked over her shoulder. The box Abuela had given her sat heavy on her hip in the holster. She hadn't even opened it. Nothing about this felt real. Or maybe, morel ikely, these last few months were the dream.

"The wrong order?"

Emanuel sat across the table from her. He flipped his laptop around and to the side until it fell open in front of him into a dark brown book. River could sort of see 'Revelations' scrawled across it. Emanuel cleared his throat.

"It's supposed to go like this. First the white horse, Plague. Then the red horse, War. Third is me. And last is the pale horse-"

"Death," River finished. Plague, War, Famine, Death. Was this what Abuela had meant? For her to seak out the horsemen themselves? To find her answers from them? Why? What did she have to do with any of them? Was it tied into what Abuela had said?

 _A_ Sentinel.

"Yes," Emanuel agreed. He closed the book, and his laptop clicked shut, set aside. "Of course, you're hardly a lamb, are you?"

River shook her head. "No," she certainly was not.

"Then I guess the order doesn't really matter… Have you seen these panphlets?" he asked, picking up one of the ones that advertised his diets.

"They're hard to miss. I'm not interested," she held up a hand to refuse it.

"Suit yourself."

River looked at the pamphlet. She couldn't really gain or lose much weight. She could feel hunger, it might hurt, but it wouldn't kill her. How strange, these powers were. They didn't always make sense. But neither did the fact that she was talking to one of the horsement of the apacolypse.

"It's one of my best works yet, now that genocide is so frowned upon."

River faltered. "What does that mean?"

"Don't you know, most famines are man made? During the fall of the Western Roman Empire, thousands starved to death because the enemies of Rome sabotaged them and the wealthy hoarded their own food. The Harrying of the north in England. Ruisia. Estonia. That potato famine in ireland? All man made, all acts of class genocide. To keep the little people in check. I do love it when humans do my work for me. There were real ones, of course. A draught, usually, or my favorite black rot. Now a days its so easy to trick people into starving themselves, and these diets!" He laughed. "They kill themselves, and they kill other people in the process! Sucking up resources, leaving the ones that that farm it to die. They've even started to kill their own children."

River pressed her lips into a thin line.

This man was far too enthusiastic about people starving to death.

His dark, sunken eyes darted to River's side, where the holster sat.

"She gave you that?"

"Huh?" she touched the holster. "Yeah. She did. Why?"

"Just wondering. I hope you don't think we're all giving you gifts."

"No," she said slowly, "I don't. But, Abuela acted like you might be able to tell me more about what's going on. About what my powers are."

"Don't you mean were?" He asked pointedly.

River stared at him. "Um. No?"

"Have you seen a mirror lately?" he asked. He nodded towards the corner where a mirror stood, full length. It definitely hadn't been there before.

River stood, walking towards it slowly. When she came to a stop in front of it, her breath froze in her lungs. Staring back at her was a girl. Seventeen. Covered in red dust, barefoot, her clothes worn. Her pale hair was void of any trace of red. Her eyes-

Her eyes were wide. Brown. Plain.

"What-?" she touched her cheek.

The girl in the mirror did the same.

"You died here, didn't you? So you've passed that tortch of yours on to someone else."

Her stomach sunk. No. _No_ , Carter had inherited her abilities. She didn't have them here. Something heavy sunk into her stomach.

"That makes twenty six people who've had it since its conception."

"What exactly is the power?" she asked, staring hard at him. "A Sentinal. What is that?"

"Hmm? Did War tell you I was going to give you all the answers? I've already told you there were twenty four others before you. Isn't that enough?"

"No!" River shook her head violently. "That's not even close to being enough. I don't know nearly enough about all of this!"

Famine hummed in thought. "You look atrocious," he said suddenly. He pressed a button the desk and not two seconds later a rail thin woman walked in holding a thick suitcase. She dropped it on the floor next to River and left.

"You're way to fat for my tastes," Emanuel went on. "Look at those folds! Disgusting," he shook his head at her.

River looked down at herself. "Those are my organs. Fuck off."

Emanuel laughed at that and stood up, pushing his chain back in.

"I'm done here. Good luck on your travels, little girl."

He walked out the room, leaving River alone. She narrowed her eyes at the door. Subconsiously she put her hand over her stomach. It was kinda soft. Maybe…

Nope!

She stood up suddenly and turned to the case. Her body was fine. It was strong, it got her from place to place and she liked it. As soon as she decided that the insecurity that the horseman had brought up faded back.

River opened the case, ruffling through. New clothes, a pair of red sneakers. And there, sitting at the bottom. Bus tickets.

She picked it up and turned it over in her hands. The destination read Salida, Utah. Another place River was familiar to.

The place where she killed Taro.

* * *

Her hair fell loosely around her shoulders, long waves of blonde that tickled her cheeks and brushed across her nose. How was she supposed to do this? Go to Salida, go to the casino where that horrible op had gone so terribly wrong.

She hadn't been able to before. How could she now?

 _Because I don't have a choice anymore. I don't have anywhere else to go. I don't know what else to do. What else can I do? I am a leaf in the wind_.

So she changed from bus to bus, until she was stepping out into the cool air of the Utah night. She could see the mountains looming in the distance, purple and black and capped in white. The sun burned faintly behind them, all but gone.

River walked away from the station, into the city proper. With nowhere else to start, she went to the tallest building in the city. The Cerveceria. It was an old building, risen from the dust in early nineteenth century. Like most parts of Nevada it grew in the times of prohibition, and swelled with the power of the mob. When Anne had been stretching her influences they had taken the city, and the casino with it.

She had been sent here with Gen and Jess to retrieve a fugitive hiding out. No one had known Taro would be here. He was supposed to be in Florida that day, but intel had been wrong on both accounts. It had been a trap. They had walked right into and in the end, River, Jess, and Gen had walked back out.

She slipped in the side door, into the casino. She knew the room that Taro had died in. 1437. So that was where she went, lifting a key card off of a bus boy and another one off of a cleaning lady. She rose the elevator up, so fast her ears popped and she almost got dizzy.

She stumbled off of the elevator, shaking off the feeling, and turned left. The footsteps felt familiar. Sealed into her bones. She could never forget this pathway. Not as long as she lived.

She stopped in front of 1437. Her hands shook as she lifted her fist and knocked once, twice, thrice. She could still smell blood. She could feel it in her hair, pale and plain. She could feel the cold grasp of Taro's hands clawing at her in his deal. Steel held in her own palm, heavy and shaking.

The door swun open.

River stared a minute, then stared some more.

Jenny McCarthy stared back at her.


	29. Salida

"You _cannot_ be serious," River said blankly. Jenny looked her over, once, and let her inside.

"And why can't I be serious?" she asked. River stepped inside, feeling sick. Was it because she could still see where Taro had died on the floor, bleeding between his ribs? Or was it because she was standing in the presence of one of the horsemen. In the presence of Plague herself.

"Because this is insane! You're a huge tv personality. You were on the Masked Singer!"

"You watched that?" Jenny looked amused.

"Yeah. You kept guessing your husband was a singer or something. I would have bet money that the peacock was Neil Pattrick Harris. I was honestly, so disappointed," River was just babbling now. Staring at the spot on the floor. The carpet was new, but she knew the exact pose Taro was in.

"Mhmm. And isn't it perfect? A sweet public persona to promote myself. Vaccines were the worst thing ever invented, for me."

"So you spread fear to try to get rid of them," River concluded. "I fucking knew anti-vaccers were nuts."

"Of course they are. There's no evidence to prove that I'm right in anything I say, but people would rather their children be dead than autistic. It works for me."

"What about your kid? If you're not human, is he…" what? A demon? An angel? A horseboy?

"A little less than human, but that just makes it easier to prove my point. Vaccines are a bad idea."

"Uh huh," River said.

"You've seen the other two already. You know your order is wrong?"

"It's been mentioned."

River made no move to step further inside. Still, the door shut behind her. The hallways were silent anyhow. There was no one else on this floor. Quiet as death.

Plague smiled at her, her eyes bright with fevers and deleria and hysteria.

"Welcome back, River Kelly."

"Quinton," she said again. She was getting tired of this. The air smelled stale, and uncomfortably like rot. Fester and infection, it clung around Jenny, impossible to ignore. "Taro," the name stuck in her throat. "He was the, _a_ Sentinel before me. Wasn't he?" She had a feeling that this one would help her about as much as the other one. She didn't know why they were helping her in the first place. Boredom?

"Of course he was. You're not that stupid are you?"

River bristled. "I'm not-"

"You've had all your shots, haven't you?" Jenny asked suddenly, grasping River by her jaw. River tensed and held her breath. While that was true, this was Plague herself. God knew what she could do. River had always thought that Jenny was pretty on tv, but up close she looked too thin, too sharp bones, her eyes too glassy and her cheeks too pink, flushed with sickness. Her perfect skin seemed to hide something crawling just underneath.

River tried not to heave. Jenny released her face and River finally breathed in, feeling sick from mere proximity. River knew fighting, and underground war. She knew hunger and the pain and ache of it. She knew death more intimately than she knew herself.

She did not know plague. She had never been truly sick, so close to death and burning from her blood outwards. It made her uncomfortable in ways that the other two had not.

"This might be the only chance for you to get really sick," Jenny mused, tilting her head in thought. Long blond hair fluttered across her collarbone. "Now that you're not a Sentinel here. "

"What does that mean? What is a Sentinal? I mean I know the invisible walls and the not aging and the not dying and all that but I don't understand. What does it mean? How did it start?"

"How did it start?" Jenny mimicked. "It's a long story. Did you ever hear of Clytemnestra?"

"Sorta?" River scratched at her neck idly. "She was Helen of Troy's sister, and Caster and Poledueses too." She'd read 'Nobody's Princess' and the Illiad both, but she didn't all that much about Clytemnestra. Just that she was Helens twin, married to her sister's husband's brother. Agamemnon. She only remembered his name because she spent a month mixing him up with Amaimon in Blue Exorcist.

"That's true. Do you know what happened to her daughter?"

River shook her head.

"She and her husband had four kids. One son, three girls. The oldest was Iphigenia, then Orestes, Chrysothemis, and Electra."

"Like Daredevil?"

Jenny shot her a whithering look. "Do you want the story or not?"

"Uh, story. Please," River said quickly. She was still distracted. She could feel blood dripping from her temples and her crown.

"During the Trojan war, when the greeks were supposed to sail, they couldn't. Agamemnon pissed off Artemis and she stopped the wind."

River narrowly kept herself from asking how greek gods and christain horsemen could all exist at the same time. She was pretty sure the answer would just make her head hurt.

"To start the wind again, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to Artemis. Clytemnestra was furious and fearful for her remaining three kids. She prayed to the gods for the power to avenge her daughter's senseless death, and to protect her other children. Leto and Nemesis, the goddesses of motherhood and vengeance, answered her prayers and gave her the power that you inherited. To shield her children and avenge her daughter."

"Okay. That explains the shields. How did the not-aging come into it?"

"That part? The two mixed their powers, and as a result things got a little … strange. Clytemnestra was half divine as it was, she was Nemesis' own daughter, and the magic all mixed together until Clytemnestra was protected from even the pass of time."

River let the world roll around inside her head.

"Clytemnestra did kill her husband. Later on, her son, Orestes, took revenge on her for killing his father. Because he committed matricide, he was cursed by the furies, and in the ensuing chaos he inherited his mother's powers too, and named it Sentinel. After him it was his daughter, Hermoine, and blah blah blah until Taro killed his boyfriend, you killed him, and your fiancé killed you."

"That's… what the fuck?" River asked. That was so convoluted. It made no sense at all.

"You asked," Jenny said testily. "Are you just going to stand there forever? I have places to be. I'm supposed to go for an interview in a few minutes. I need to make myself look more human than this."

"Yeah," River said absently. The more Jenny talked the more River could see the disease sitting beneath her skin. Jenny shooed her out of the room and shut the door behind her, striding down the hallway. She touched each doorhandle on her way down, dripping a clear oil that River had a feeling no one else would notice.

River leaned against the wall and closed her eyes, breathing deeply. She tried to sort through everything she'd learned. She was the twenty sixth Sentinal. It had started in Greece, for vengeance and protection. The four horsemen existed. Angels existed. And so did Greek gods. Cain and Abel were real, Cain had a wife, probably his sister. She had no idea how Greek gods and Christianity existed at the same time.

Jenny had left before she could give River any clue about where she was supposed to go next, but she felt like she already knew. She had a few loose ends to tie up herself, and she knew that where ever she went, Death would be there waiting for her.

He had been in the hotel, all that time ago…

* * *

 _Theodore Seagram was a creature of habit. For someone in his business, a habit was as good as a death sentence. For someone that River had been sent after, it was certainly one. The only problem was, this op was quickly turning south. Already the casino floor downstains had turned into a blood bath, Seagram associated guards and REACH opperatives in a firefight with civillians caught in the middle. She'd escaped the growing carnage down stairs, still fixed on her target. She knew his room. It didn't occure to her that this would be a trap._

 _The slim black dress held tight to her hips, but did nothing to hold her steps back. She took the ground in long strides, the maids apron shed. Her disguise was left behind with the cleaning cart around the corner. Jess, his rich brown hair tight tight to the back of his head, had beat her too the room with Gen. She could already hear the gunfire, the clatter of knives. She could smell blood before she was even at the door, taste the fight on the tip of her tongue._

 _She held the gun tight in her hands, her brown eyes sharp with concentration._

 _This wasn't the first op she'd gone on with the boys. Not by a long shot. But it was the first one where they didn't have Gabe breathing down their necks, watching over them. Making sure River wasn't going to turn from them and go back to Anne, return to the lace trap that was wrapped around her hand._

 _It was a fair fear. It was founded, too. River had only stopped sending Anne information on the REACH and ATLAS a few months ago. She was bordering on the ground of traitor, but she hadn't crossed the line yet._

 _Her boots, heavy and foreign, made barely a sound. She heard Gen shout, heard Jess curse, and her jog turned into a rapid sprint. She bolted into the bedroom where Theodore was supposed to be._

 _It took her only a split second to take in what was going on. There were five men, dead on the ground, shot between the eyes. Jess stood against a corner, Gen at his side. Gen was bleeding heavily from his side, one of his arms lay on the floor a few feet away._

 _Across the room from them, a familiar burn of red hair and crimson lips curved into a vicious snarl. Hawk eyes, gold and once so warm, were locked on the boys._

 _River saw his hand lift. Felt the air start to move with his power and knew exactly who it was aimed at. She didn't know what possessed her. Instinct, she would say later. Love, she would know in her heart._

 _She screamed, voice cracking and her body moved. Taro's eyes flickered to her, his concentration broken. They grew wide, his mouth opened, but the gun had already spoken and there was no takin her words back._

 _Red blossomed between his ribs._

 _The gun clattered to the ground, falling from Rivers limp fingers. Horror and fear washed through her icy veins. She scrambled across the room, reaching Taro's side as he struck the ground, landing hard on his back._

 _"_ _Taro! Taro!" she screamed his name, like that would change what she had done. Her fingers found the bullet hole between his ribs. It wasn't healing, why wasn't it healing? He couldn't die. Taro could die. "Please," she begged._

 _A hand covered hers, then another. Checking the hole she'd created. His lungs drew in a horrible wheezing from the hole. She'd pierced his lungs. Far off, she heard Jess calling for a medic, his voice sharp and desperate. There was so much blood on the floor, spreading out from Taro._

 _"_ _Ri-ver," her name barely passed his painted lips. Tears swam in her eyes until she scrubbed them away viciously. She wouldn't let him see her cry. Yet her vision clouded again, despite her stubborn denial._

 _"_ _Taro. Taro, please," she said again._

 _Hawk eyes bored into her own, gold steadily over taking nature along side tears. Blood soaks into her skin, her clothes, her hair. His smile was red, red, red._

 _"_ _The only thing that will hurt you now, little girl, is someone you love and someone who loves you in return. That's why-"_

 _His fingers, stained with blood, touched her temples and he forced himself up wards long enough to press his lips, as red with blood as lipstick, to her crown. It clung to her, sticky and horrible and red, red, red._

 _"_ _I'm leaving one last thing to you, River girl. One day, you'll leave it to someone you love too. So live, River._ Live _."_

 _River shook her head, trying to lean into hands that fell limp to his sides. His eyes faded, from hawk gold to pale blue and the red seeped out of his hair until it was deep black. The light and the life left him. River bent double over his body, her hair dripping with his blood, blood staining her hands. The brown gone from her eyes, leaving them yellow._

 _"_ _TARO!"_


	30. Taca

**So! A chunk of this chapter is taken directly out of River's original story!**

* * *

River hadn't travelled so much in a long, long time.

Even so far away from Salida as Taca was, so many states to the north and east, she could still hear her heart beating hard beneath her ribs. She had burned the stench of sickness that clung to Jenny off of her skin as soon as she'd gotten somewhere with a showed, nearly scalding her flesh right off. She's no Overhaul, but she's not immune to everything anymore either. She had no intention of dying of the black plague or the Spanish flu, or whatever other horrific disease Jenny McCarthy is determined to bring back.

 _"_ _We got guns, we got guns, we got guns. We got guns, you better run. We're killing strangers, we're killing strangers. We're killing strangers, so we don't kill the ones that we love."_

The lyrics beat through her head as she walked the streets, hands in the pockets of a long black coat she'd stolen. The abnoxious red sneakers constrasted starkly to the pale pink romper under it all, lined with sweet lace.

The last time she had been in Taca had been the only time after the fall of ATLAS and REACH that she'd needed a new name, a new cover. Harrison Perkins, a senator, had taken care of almost everything for her before he'd died and all it took was one small favor. A life for a life. It sounded fair to her.

But she'd had to run, once. Someone had come for her, three years before she met Carter. She'd killed them, they hadn't stood much of a chance and they'd found her mostly on luck instead of skill, but still. She had to burn her name, cleared of Red Lace as it was. Taca was the place to do it.

She could see, from her place across the street, that the old shop had changed management. She hoped the last owner wasn't dead. She touched the wallet in her pocket, with the ID that listed her name. Her place as Taro's legacy.

* * *

 _River knows a lot of people. She knows a lot of people that smarter folks would be weary of looking at, and these same people almost all owe her favors or fear her enough that they will do as she asks even if they don't._

 _The chop shop smells like oil, gunpowder, and burning metal. It's busy and loud. Everywhere she looks someone is working over bolts, taking apart half crashed shards of metal or polishing stolen cars to look like new. Papers change hands, green cash or white titles. It's not the cars that River is here for, a mere twelve hours after leaving her home. Even at six in the morning the building bustles._

 _She steps through the organized chaos that surrounds the efficient gutting of a lifted truck, the kind that cut you off on the interstate and blow black smoke out the tailpipe for no other reason than they want to._

 _High above the refurbished factory sits an operators booth, and it there that she climbs, taking the steps two at a time in her pink sneakers. Her hair, silver streaked with red along the temples at the crest of her widows peak, it shoved up under a baseball cap. Her hair is distinctive and dye doesn't stick to it. It's easily the hardest part of her life. Her hair._

 _She knocks thrice on the door in front of her and opens it without asking._

 _The room smells like diesel and heavy incense, and its plastered wall to wall in old new paper clippings, like a paper-mache balloon. She can see the heavy locks on the filing cabinets in each corner, but she knows the man sitting behind the big glass desk well enough to know they don't contain anything useful._

 _"_ _Barker," is all she has to say to get him to look at her. He looked delighted and terrified in the same measure, a look she hasn't seen in years. She has not missed it._

 _"_ _River!" Jimmy Barker Jr, who will as soon shoot someone as look at them that call him by his first name, it a small man. Shorter than River by a head, with long, delicate fingers that let him reach into crevices and nooks that most mechanics wouldn't be able to. He's good for delicate work on cars, and excellent for new papers. One of the best forgers of the century, Taro had called him once. Jimmy, who'd been screwing him at the time, had turned the most interesting red._

 _"_ _Hey Barker. It's been a minute," her smile is half cocked, a phantom thing. Barker left his desk behind and goes to clasp hand with her, his other hand touching her elbow. There's a smear of ink on his cheek, his own brand of warpaint._

 _"_ _I was sorry to hear about your dad," he tells her. River nods, because she knows. Everyone was sorry to hear about him. He'd been a legend, and with his death had come the end of an era._

 _"_ _Thanks. Listen, I need a new name. Can ya help me out?"_

 _Barker looks insulted. "That's a stupid question. It's my job."_

 _"_ _Yeah," says River. "And you're the best. That's why I'm here. "_

 _"_ _It'll take me a second," he lets her go and walks back behind his desk. River has no idea what he's doing when he spins to his computer and starts tapping away at the keyboard, so fast his fingers barely touch down before moving on._

 _"_ _Name?" he asks._

 _River is about to say to use the same one before she stops herself._

 _River Kelly. She had born that name her whole life, held it on her shoulders and walked a broken path beneath its banner. It was her fathers name, and his fathers before him, and she knows that there's a little house in Hopewell that still has Kelly carved into its from steps._

 _River, her mothers own private joke for the one that ran behind the house she was born in._

 _She scratches at the back of her neck, an old habit she's tried and failed to break._

 _"_ _River Quinton," she says at last. For Taro._

 _If Barker thinks anything of it he doesn't say, but he does look at her, squint for a second, before going back to his work. He doesn't ask how to spell it. He knows as well as she._

 _"_ _River Quinton. Philosophy degree, masters, teaching license?"_

 _River nods. "All of it. You can draw up whatever back story you want. I'll memorize it."_

 _"_ _Okay," he clicks around with his mouse and one of the printers starts to make a sound like a dying bird. "River Quinton. You were born in LA and you worked your way through college as a stripper. Arrested in '07 for-"_

 _"_ _Barker," she says emphatically, trying to hide a smile._

 _"_ _Well. It's still better than the real shit."_

 _"_ _Mmm. Gimme something less scandalous yeah?"_

 _"_ _Lame," Barker said. He went back to his work, quick and efficient. River appreciated it. Barker was swift, for all he liked to chat with folks and crack dry jokes at his client expense. If he wasn't the best of the best he probably would have ended up with a bullet between his eyes already._

 _The people the two of them associated with, or those that River used to associate with, were not good people. Sometimes they were kind, if it could be afforded, but their kindness, like hers, walked a border of the word that few regular people would recognize as kindness at all._

 _Barker handed her a small folder when he was done, an ID with a picture of her warped just enough to look like she'd been younger when it was taken, and a stack of papers that held her background. Hometown, high school, what years they'd won games and what years they'd lost. Classmates, and college's and professors names. Previous places she had worked._

 _All of this, Barker had done in under twenty minutes._

 _"_ _Still the same invoice?" River asked, already counting off how much she had to give to him. Enough. She always had enough._

 _"_ _Still the same invoice," Barker nodded at her. "You've been out of the game for a long time."_

 _"_ _And I still am," River said swiftly. She didn't want anyone getting any ideas. "I'm out."_

 _Barker looked at her, a note of pity in his eyes._

 _"_ _Honey," he drawled, "If you were out, you wouldn't be here right now."_

 _River didn't respond. She didn't rise to his bait, she didn't bite at him for telling her what she didn't want to hear. She opened her backpack and shoved her new papers inside, down at the bottom._

 _Her fingers brushed something that she hadn't put there._

 _Trying not to let on that anything was amiss, which was a challenge for someone who sucked at lying as much as she did, she pushed a few shirts and a knife out of the way to press her new folder in. On top of a folder that she had no put in there. She felt dread creep into her stomach. Carter wouldn't have done it, he didn't know about her bolt bag. Which meant that someone else had done it. Someone had gone into her house, gone into her bag, and put in a folder._

 _The paper was thick, an off white and sealed tight. It was not thick, but just seeing it was enough for her to know she did not want to know its contents, and had to find out all the same._

 _River pushed her things back where they belonged and looked at Barker again. She swung the back onto her back where it settled, heavy with a new weight that she did not want to bear. She shoved her hand at his, calloused and clean._

 _He grasped it, smearing ink all over the back and across her palm. His smile was all teeth, without any malice at all._

 _"_ _Good to see you, River."_

 _"_ _That's not something I hear much," she joked. She squeezed his hand. "Take care of yourself Barker. I'll see you on the other side."_

 _"_ _Not if I see you first."_

 _River let go, turned around and left him there. She jogged down the stairs, taking them two at a time recklessly. Her heart beat hummingbird wings against her ribs. Against her will her eyes swept across the room, looking for any familiar faces. For anyone who knew her well enough to know where she had been, where she was, and where she was going to go now._

 _All she found were strangers._

 _While they had been talking one of Barker's people had changed the plates on her car and put fresh papers in the front seat. The oil sticker was changed, the headlights were cleaned, and the gas was full. Barker must have liked her more than she thought._

 _Even so, as soon as she drove around the corner she pulled over and checked for bugs, monitors, or changed wires._

 _Nothing. Just her car, her cat, and a folder in her bag._

* * *

The folder had been a contract from a man who'd called himself OWL. No matter to all of that now. Barker wasn't here anymore. There was only one person that River was here for now.

She turned down the main street, away the cute little boutiques and the shadowy underbelly that sat behind their sweet slogans. She clicked idly at a Snapple lid in her pocket, keeping her eyes ahead of her. No one else noticed her. Why would they? She didn't have the distinct hair or the eyes that her contract had listed with it, and she looked too young to be herself.

Other would see the way she walked, the way she breathed, and know she was someone. But as long as her hands were hidden, they wouldn't know who.

Good.

River turned onto a different road. It lead out of down, carrying her through the thick pine trees that surrounded Taca.

Her destination wasn't too far outside, still close enough to count as a part of the city. She breathed in the fresh air, and as she drew closer she could smell manure and car oil. The road changed from concrete to dirt and still she walked on, until she stepped into the open drive way. A sprawling house stretched across the land before her. Shadowed behind it was a stable, and a smattering of cabins that freckled the landscape. A sign hung above her head, sprawling fancy cursive in iron.

Pine Hollow Ranch.

River walked up the dusty drive way. She carefully tucked her headphones into her pocket. There was a parking lot a ways away, where cars with plates that read Illinois, Colorado, even South Carolina sat in the sun. River walked into the main house, climbing the few steps it took to get inside. No one stopped her. No one even noticed her.

The house was massive, sprawling. It had at least five bedrooms, two living rooms, and a kitchen that was bigger than Rivers whole house in NYC. Everything was emaculate, spotless. There wasn't a dish or a pan out of place. The only thing interesting was the bright pamphlets spread out across the table.

She shuffled through them idly. Liberal arts schools, all of them. And the local school, a private college by the name of Holly Hock College. River had gotten an invitation to teach there, not long after she changed her name. It was tiny, and it was pretty close. Not a part of Taca, but still well within driving distance. There were about twelve pamphlets for that one.

River looked up when foot falls echoed into the room.

A girl walked in, right past River, to the fridge. She was staring at her phone until she looked up long enough to open the door and dig through. She came back with carton of orange juice, popped off the lid, and chugged half if it in one go.

She turned, saw River, and just kind of stared.

They were almost identical. The new girl had a straighter nose, never broken, and finer cheek bones. Her jaw was a bit more square, and she still had puppy fat clinging to her. Her body was slim, not as well muscled. But her brown eyes and her pale, ash blond hair had the same waves that fluttered through Rivers.

Someone had once told her that brown eyes were more trustworthy. River had always sucked at lying, and now she was standing in this girls kitchen, this girl who looked so much like her.

"Are you going to school?" she asked, holding up the pamphlet for Holly Hock.

"Uh, yeah. This fall. Are you?"

"Me? Yeah. I'm just on Vacation right now." Sort of. "What was your name?"

"I'm Brook," she said, "Brook Henley."

Henley. River knew that name. Henley was the name of Colleens second husband. And Brook, it seemed, was her daughter. Their daughter.

"Are you staying close to home?"

Her nose wrinkled. "Probably. My parents are paying for it and they want me to stay in state."

River looked away from her.

 _"_ _I should have drowned you in that River the day you were born! You're a curse!"_

And now this was Brook. River pulled out her phone. She logged into an online bank with a blank app face. Impossible to track, plenty of her money was in there. It took her no time at all for her to find Brooks social media, and her attached to it. She transferred more than enough for college.

"Good luck, then," River said. She left the room, and Brook didn't follow her. What must that be like? To be so carefree you don't even question strangers in your kitchen? She would never know. Brook knew. And Colleen, now she lived in this big house in Taca instead of in a penthouse in Hollywood, the way she'd always dreamed.

River climbed the stairs and followed the old wear in the carpet until she came to the master bedroom. It was bigger than the house she had lived in Hopewell, and it smelled like cleaning supplies and too expensive perfume.

She looked around, looked at closets and jwelry boxes, and wedding pictures. By the time the sun set she was back in the bedroom, waiting on a chest at the foot of it.

Colleen came in first. She had always been an early riser.

She was older than River remembered.

Crows feet dogged the corner of her eyes and the corners of her mouth were twisted into the sides. Her throat was forcefully tucked up and her eye brows were sharp and raised. She was seventeen when she'd gotten pregnant. Now, she was fifty four, with a daughter ready to go off to college and one who used to teach it.

"Wow," River drawled, making Colleen jumped about a foot in the air. "How things change."

Her pale hair, once the same shade that River and Brook, was streaked with silver through the roots but darker further down. Cut into a sharp bob around her earlobes. She was dressed like a farmers housewife, and everything about her screamed 'I want to speak to your manager'. River scratched idly at her neck, the black lace on her hand dancing in the dying light of the window.

Colleen spun around. When she saw River the color drained from her face.

"No," she shook her head. "No, no. You're dead. You were supposed to be dead, they called me!"

"Maybe I am," River said amiably. "Did you get a call from a high school too?"

Collen's mouth pinched together and her breath came fast and ragged.

"You're not ruining my life again!"

River cocked her head. She looked at Colleen. Thought about Brook. She'd had so much animosity for Colleen for so much of her life, but now, standing in the same room as her, she felt none of it. Colleen was just a woman. She had hurt River, certainly. River would have to live the rest of her life knowing how she got her name, how unplanned and unwanted she was.

But she _was_ wanted.

Taro had wanted her. Gabe had wanted her. All Might wanted her back at the school, and so did Aizawa and Uraraka and the others.

River stepped forwards. Colleen stumbled away from her, raising her hands in front of her face. River walked up to her, and ever so gently brushed her bangs away from her forehead, revealing the little scar that rested on her brow. Colleen had always been beautiful. Brook was too. But she had never made it into the movies like she wanted. Instead she married a rich man who had a hobby of running a dude ranch. Her dreams shattered. Perhaps by River, perhaps by something else. It was she who River had gone to LA looking for in the first place. It was she who River had chased, so desperate for kindness and love and too young to fully understand what her mother was.

"I hope, for your sake, Brook wasn't named for the same reason I was."

Then, she walked away.

She had no need of Colleens love. Love born into would never amount to love that was given so freely.


	31. Carter

**Alrighty! We've only got two more chapters before she goes back home.**

* * *

Simmons was River's favorite café in the city. It had better cappucino's than Saffron Ally, and its pastries were light and fluffy. It was also the first place she met Carter. She'd been finishing up grading papers when he'd sat down in front of her with a charming smile and his name on a napkin.

She's thought he was after something, and while she was right, it wasn't her life or anything like that. He'd been after her number, and a hook up and it had evolved from there until they'd moved in together, until he'd gotten on one knee and asked her to marry him.

She'd agreed, of course. She'd been in love. She'd thought he loved her too.

He did. Or else she wouldn't have died, and he wouldn't have gotten her power. It was strange, how love overlapped with less pleasant things. Even abusive people could love those they hurt.

That didn't mean they deserved even a modicrum of forgiveness. It only meant that people were complicated.

She was sitting at Simmons again, thinking about Carter and what he had done and what it meant. For her and for him. Her chai had cooled by the time he walked past her with another girl. His hair was the color of ash, his eyes were the same yellow that hers had been.

She didn't know what she was doing here, exactly. Looking for the last horsemen, but there was nothing to tell her that he would be here. With Carter.

He walked right on by and didn't even notice her, just sat his new girlfriend down at the table beside hers and went to order, kissing the girl on the cheek. River watched him go. She expected to feel something. Anger. Fury. Hurt, or sadness. Jealousy.

But she didn't. She didn't feel anything like that, just an ache that had dulled with time. She had done her crying for him. This girl, though…

"Is he your boyfriend?" River asked conversationally. The girl looked over at her, surprised. She was pretty. A sweet, heart shaped face and brown hair tied carefully back. Bangs brushed across her forehead. There was a smattering of freckles across her face, and her eyes were a rather plain hazel. River had seen her before. She and Carter worked together. They'd never spoken before, though.

"Oh, him? Yeah," she smiled, soft and lovestruck. Her eyes were so warm.

"That's nice," River stirred her chai idly. "How long have you been going out?"

"Huh? Oh, about a year," she said brightly.

That time, River's stomach twisted unpleasantly. A year? That would mean that Carter had been dating her since just after their engagement. He was even worse than she thought. How could he love her and still do those things? Still cheat, still hurt her, still light a match and kill her?

"That sounds pretty serious," River said instead of voicing her thoughts. Carter was starting to come back, drinks in hand. The girl shrugged, looking a little less sure now.

"Yeah , I guess."

"Nice talking to you," River nodded at her and stood. She turned, carefully dodging around Carter, and went to put her cup in the bin they left for them before she exited the café.

River walked away. She took herself to the place where her house had once stood. Now, already, there was a new one in its place. It left a sour taste in her mouth, to see someone elses house where hers had once stood. The family looked nice enough. Some kids. A couple of parents. The neighbors didn't notice her, or didn't care. It didn't matter much. This was the city. You could live for years with people and not even know their first name. River almost missed it.

Almost.

She wandered for a while, thinking, looking at facebook. She ghost wrote on her old one, and got plenty of comments about how shitty it was to disgrace the dead. River wanted to snap at those people. She had more respect for the dead than most people. Instead she logged out and let it be.

Carter occupied her thoughts.

There was a part of her that still loved him. There would always be, she suspected. Love was a hard thing to shake off. There wasn't much hatred for him in her. That was good.

Taro always told her that whatever she did, she could not kill out of hatred. It clouds the mind and makes you messy, weak, and distracted.

" _You cannot kill someone if you hate them. You'll lose too much of yourself that way, chipping at the edges of your heart with a knife. "_

She didn't hate Carter. She wanted to. But she didn't.

His new girlfriend. She didn't hate her either. Had she known that Carter had a girlfriend when they started going out? Did she know what he had done to River, for telling him 'no'?

Rivers hands curled into her pockets.

She doubted it.

Carter wasn't that forthcoming. And he wouldn't implicate himself in murder. The girl probably had no idea that she was dating such a horrible person. And now he had the Sentinal power. He was dangerous.

But not as dangerous as River was.

River walked down a street lined with brownstones. The sun was getting low but the heat was getting higher and higher. Where was a piragua man when she needed him? Sweat broke across her brow and she grimaced, running her fingers through her plain blonde hair.

Carter was dangerous. And with her death he had become more dangerous. He didn't respect people. Their boundaries, their autonomy. Or at least womens.

She scratched the back of her neck as she thought.

It was easy to find his address. He'd moved in with his new girlfriend, Millie. Millie Whitlock. There's a fish bowl on the mantel, too small for the beta inside is. The sun has gone and only River is awake by the time she gets in. She goes on quiet feet.

There are kitchen knives, and a shot gun in the corner. River doesn't bother with them. She doesn't want to traumatize Millie _too_ much. Keep it clean, keep it neat, keep it quiet. She knows how to do all of these things.

They look peaceful in the bed. Carter, with his warm arms wrapped around Millie, who in turn smiles in her sleep. There's an air of peace around them. River knows it well. She had once had it with Carter too. It felt like a lifetime ago. They had had a good life, until she had stopped sleeping with him. And then it had all gone down hill.

Now, with his yellow eyes, the power he could leverage over a girl was even more. And if it wasn't Millie it would be someone else.

Her calloused fingers brushed featherlight across his arm, drawight his wrist away from Millie's stomach. A pinch and it was over. She held her thumb nail against his skin, catching one of the big veins in his wrist. Her thumb nail pushed the blood together until there was a clot, and she released it, stepping back.

He twitched, grasped and stuttered. His eyes snapped open, briefly, yellow fading out of them.

River stood above him. She could feel the change beneath her skin, feel the power that glowed in her eyes. She tilted her head and smile at Carter, one last time. He gasped and choked and fell still. Red spilled across the side of her cheeks. Millie stirred, and River left.

It was for the best this way, in the end.

Carter wouldn't hurt anyone ever again.


	32. REACH

Taro had a had a house in West Virginia.

He didn't use it much. It had been left to him by his mother. It didn't have any good memories for him, a little gay kid who liked playing piano more than he cared about football, raised by harcore Christians. There were still old pamphlets for the conversion camp they'd sent him too in the attic, stuffed in the boxes that he never went through. River had explored every inch of the house the first, and only, time Taro had brought her there, twenty four years ago.

She'd torn through everything. She wanted to know everything about Taro, about what drove him, about where he'd come from and how he'd become who he was. It was a fucked up story. She hadn't expected something happy, but she'd thought at least his parents might have loved him. Perhaps he was an orphan.

No, nothing was ever so simple as that.

It wasn't really a safehouse. It was just a house, with wifi, and that was good enough. She started with public files. Ray Kennedy was the only one with a particularly informative public record. The only other one was Maggie Cook, and that was little more than he facebook. Ray Kennedy was easier. He was in nursing school, top of his class. Single, no pets, and one day he up and disappeared. About a month after River had died, in fact. With public records not much help, she changed tactics.

River logged into an old server, one she could barely believe was still up and running. It took her a few tries to figure out the new password. River tapped in a few names, checked with a few brokers that wouldn't mention to anyone that she was still alive, and looked around at video cameras.

One thing stuck out.

The same day Ray Kennedy and Maggie Cook had disappeared they'd both gone into the same electronics store. They weren't the only ones either. River paid for some of the video footage and got to watch more than just them walk in. A couple of girls walked in that knew how to hide their faces from the camera, but she recognized Chick Bradshaw and Gen regardless.

There was no way that was Gen though.

With her head clearer River took in more details. He was taller here, his shoulders broader, and his gate less graceful and more powerful. No Gen. But Gen had two brothers, Wei and Takashi. Wei, oldest of the trio, had been killed during the war between the Singh crime family and the Lun Mun Triad. River had met Gen shortly after that, when he was filled with anger and viciousness. She'd never met his twin, Takashi, but Gen spoke of him fondly. Takashi was the softest, the sweetest, with dreams of doing other things. He was a physipher, Gen had told her. And now he was trying to kill her.

Along with them, a few others entered. Most left, just regular customers, but a very old woman, a young woman with long brown hair that River knew she knew, and Jack Cast. River had known him well. She'd been dating his sister, Rachel, when REACH had fallen.

The longer she looked the more she realized that she knew all of these people.

She'd suspected that they were all people she'd hurt, but now she knew who they were. She knew exactly what she'd done.

* * *

 _Chick hit the ground with a shout._

 _River stood above her, nine years older and a good foot taller. Chick was bleeding from a cut on her brow, struggling to breath properly and fighting for consciousness as much as to try and beat River. She was a scrappy little thing, from a group home, underfed and scrawny, but she was putting on weight fast. River was sure she was made to be much bigger than she was. Jazz had only gotten her a few months ago, but her loyalty was absolute. Jazz was very good at what he did, the brainwashing and the training._

 _She fought like a cat, vicious and wild and intent on ripping out Rivers entrails._

 _River tapped her ribs lightly with her toe._

 _"_ _Can you still stand up?" she asked, looking down at the girl with dispassionate brown eyes. This fight meant nothing for her. It was just playing around, just knocking Chick on her ass every few minutes without doing any permanent damage. Pain could be a good teacher, but too much meant that she was no better than the adults that had kicked her around when she was Chicks age._

 _"_ _I'm fine," she snapped. River watched her fight to roll on her side, scratching the back of her neck idly with a hand that was half covered in black lace. When Chick managed to get off of her knees and almost pitch forwards River grabbed her at the elbow, keeping her up._

 _Chick twisted with a shout and turned, punching River soundly in the nose. It was the first good hit she'd gotten in all day. River jerked back, letting the girl fall back to the ground as she grasped at her face. Blood poured freely down her mouth and chin, staining her dark shirt and scating between her small boobs._

 _Chick lifted herself to her knees, horror on her face when she realized what she'd done. River took a step towards her and Chick threw her hands in front of her face, to block the blow._

 _It never came._

 _River tapped the back of Chick's hand lightly._

 _"_ _About time you hit me, Chiquita," she says lightly. "C'mon. Let's grab some lunch and we'll start something new, yeah?"_

 _Chick looked up at her, her brown eyes huge and disbelieving. River's stomach twisted with the anger of the beast that lives within and she wanted terribly to go the place they'd gotten Chick and rip apart the ones in charge. But she didn't. Taro had taught her better than that._

 _Chick followed her through the base, a refurbished gym with a hollowed out underground that served as their living quarters and escape. She takes her to the kitchen in the common area and nukes some Ramen for them. Even though the directions say not to microwave styrophome, she figures they'll both be dead before they get any cancer from it. While they turned circles in the microwave, River mopped up her face._

 _Chick sat at the table, still looking uncomfortable. The silence wasn't nice, but it wasn't oppressive either. Chick was a pretty quiet girl all on her own. She talked to Jazz, but it was with the deference and hero worship that he cultivated. Not a real conversation._

 _River handed her noodles and the girl inhaled them swiftly. River, a little more used to being able to fill her belly, ate hers slower. She was trying to remember how to do this. How Taro had taught her without knocking her goddamn head off._

 _When they were done they went back to the little room they'd been in before, lined with thick mats on all services and occupied by weapons of all sorts. River had Chick stand in the middle of everything before she hit the lights, plunging them both into darkness._

 _"_ _You won't always be able to see," River told her, "We work in the darkness. Out of sight and out of mind. You need to be able to find people without seeing them, get it Chiquita?"_

 _"_ _Yeah." It's the first thing she'd said all day. River took that as a good sign. She took one of the Song Ja Bongs off of the wall. It's an overglorified baseball bat covered in padding. It would definitely hurt, but it wouldn't do real damage in the hands of someone who knew what they were doing._

 _"_ _Just focus on dodging or blocking for now," River instructed, walking up to her. She couldn't make her feet make noise, but the sound of her thighs brushing together and her breathing should give her away, especially to someone like Chick. River breathes in and out noticeably. She can hear, without her eyes to distract her, Chicks breathing. The way she moved from foot to foot. She can hear, or maybe more like feel, the electricity beneath her skin. It was a sense that River didn't quite know how to explain, and one that Taro hadn't been able to either._

 _River came up in front of her and poked Chick in the stomach._

 _She stepped back from the blow aimed at her arm easily. "Just dodging and blocking," she said again, "But those are good instincts."_

 _They began. River was told to teach her, and so she would._

* * *

 _River was fifteen years old when she sat in the cell. Solitary. They wouldn't put her near anyone else. Too many people would try and take her head, and too many of them would die for their trouble. That would be way too much paperwork._

 _She was here by her own fault. River had gone and broken Anne's biggest rule. She had been caught. Worse, she had been caught by the worst people possible._

 _ATLAS._

 _Officially, they were the Advanced Tactical Liaisons, Associates, and Security._

 _Working underneath ATLAS, lead by a man only known as Oscar, was the REACH. It was them that she was worried about, and it was them that she was going to have to face. She had seen them before. When she was thirteen, the last time she'd screwed up a job, she had been cornered and almost killed by REACH men. They were the governments wild dogs, unknown to the public and spoken of in the underground in nothing more than whispers and hushed stories of glory and death._

 _That was the first time River had seen Taro bleed, against the REACH men, and now they had her in their clutches._

 _She glared balefully at the handcuffs that held her against the table. Solid steel. Table Bolted to the floor, but not the chair. Her ankles were bound so tight she couldn't feel her feet, bare against the cold metal floor. They had shaved her hair, to ensure she didn't have any bobby pins. They had searched her entirely, and now she sat in clothes two sizes to big._

 _Waiting. Waiting. Waiting._

 _Waiting was the bane of her existence. River was not a girl renown for her patience. That was why she was here in the first place. Because she got impatient. Because she got caught._

 _She had already been waiting for at least a day, and after what felt like three more, the door opened and_ they _walked in._

 _Gabe. Tall, dark, and not very handsome but certainly strong. He was stocky and built like a brick wall. His dark eyes were far off. Black holes that threatened to suck all light out, and maybe Rivers very soul._

 _The other man she's seen more often. ATLAS' leader. Jackson G. Cook. He had more awards than half the army combined, and a public image as an honest man that would beat out Abe Lincoln. Even River didn't know anything incriminating about him._

 _Few men couldn't be bought, and he was one of them._

 _Just seeing them was enough to make River's skin crawl. How much would she have left, when they were done with this interrogation?_

 _Gabe stares at her, his eyes fathomless but she knows theres anger in them. She can feel it in the air, the shadows felt longer and his shoulders were tight,_

 _"_ _You're a kid," he says, slowly. Like he's tasting the word._

 _"_ _I'm sixteen!" River snapped impulsively. "And I'm not a child!"_

 _He turned, and walked right out the door. River watched him go. He sensitive ears picked up shouting through the wall, but it was so muffled_

 _"_ _Um," River said intelligently. Jackson G Cook sat across from her, listening with on ear to the door. There was something about him that set Rivers teeth on edge. She'd only seen him in media feed but up close there was something about him. Something under his skin, something that makes her want to scrambled into a corner where she can't be snuck up on._

 _Gabe came back a minute later, looking stern and hard, but he didn't set her on edge. Not like Jackson did._

 _Jackson, who was looking hard at her. He shared a look with Gabe, who lifted his shoulder and handed him a manilla folder._

 _"_ _You're going to go to jail," Jackson told her gravely, as if River hadn't figured that out on her own. "But we can get you a plea, cut down the jail time or get you somewhere safe, if you tell us everything you know about Anne Reed and her associates."_

 _The answer was easy._

 _"_ _You can take that offer and shove it up you ass."_

 _Jackson scowled. River hooked her ankles tighter around the chair under the table. She gripped her hands together, looking dead at him. Her pulse fluttered. There was no one and nothing here to protect her. No one gave a shit when she asked for a lawyer._

 _"_ _I don't think you understand the severity of your situation," Jackson said slowly. "If you go to jail, you;ll be tried as an asult. You'll probably get the death penalty."_

 _"_ _If I snitch I'll definitely get the death penalty," she retorted._

 _"_ _I'm trying to help you here. I've been trying to help all of your friends, but I can't do that if you don't give me something to work with. You'll pay for what you did, and I can't protect you from that if you don't help me here."_

 _"_ _I told you you can shove that offer up your ass!" She yanked the handcuffs harshly until they bit into her skin and yanked her whole body up and over, bringing the steel chair with her to smash it down on Jackson's shoulders. He shouted and hit the ground while Gabe's stoic façade broke with a bubble of harsh laughter. River was left on her back, laid across the table, while he stood next to her. Jackson picked himself up, covering one of his eyes with his hand._

 _"_ _I want her," Gabe said firmly. He looked down at River, a half smile cracked across his face. "I've got my own offer. You don't give me any information, but you work for me instead of going to jail."_

 _"_ _In what, a suicide squad remix?"_

 _"_ _Something like that. It'll keep you out of jail, and you won't have to deal with Cook," he nodded to his partner. "So?"_

 _River weighed her options. There had to be something else going on. No one would make her that offer without a back up plan. But it was better than jail, and if she did that she might have a chance of getting back to Taro. She would be able to report movements to Anne and keep helping them._

 _River nodded shortly at him._

 _"_ _Fine. Deal."_

 _"_ _What the_ fuck _, Gabe?!"_

* * *

 _River struggles to stand still._

 _In the four years she'd been with ATLAS and REACH she had never seen this happen. Gabe and Jackie were in a fight. Not the little spats they got in, but a full on screaming match. Gabe had blown an op to kill a foreign embassasy so he could evacuate kids in the basement. It was the right call, but the embassay got away and now the UN was up Jackie's ass for it and REACH was at risk of being decommissioned._

 _River watched the pair shout and scream from her place by the door, standing guard with Rachel Cast. Rachel was one of three triplets that worked in different sections of REACH. Her younger brother, Jack, worked in the research and developments labs. Her older brother, Trevor, was a mechanic. Rachel herself was a petty guard for REACH. She didn't run around ATLAS or travel the world like River did, and if she was honest she wasn't that good of a fighter. But she was sweet and kind, even in the military, even underground. Her hands felt amazing, tangled in River red and blond hair, and her lips were soft and gentle. She knew all of River and she loved her all the same. Despite her sins, despite her pains, she still loved her._

 _Rachel touched her wrist._

 _"_ _I'm gonna go. Check on something," she said, a lame excuse. "You got this?"_

 _River scrunched up her nose. "Yeah I got it."_

 _Rachel laughed at her misfortune and swiftly slipped outside._

 _River alone got to watch the fight escalate, until Jackie snarled something too far at Gabe. Her shoulder blades drew together. She crossed the room, grabbing Jackie's wrist._

 _"_ _you can't talk to him like that!" she fought._

 _Jackie spun on her and slapped her straight across the face. Her head snapped to the side, mouth open with shock. Jackie didn't like her. He didn't like her, Gen, Jess, or any other of Gabe's little pet projects. But he'd never struck her before. Gabe's hand brushed her stomach as he pushed her behind him, his broad shoulders blocking her view._

 _"_ _This is what I'm talking about! There's no discipline with your mad dogs, Gabe, they're a liability and and a danger, and you-"_

 _The floor rumbled. It buckled, coming from under their feet. The three of them looked at eachother, the fight forgotten. They turned to the door as it burst open and Rachel came in, gun in hand._

 _"_ _We're under attack!" She shouted. "The bottom floor was targeted. We need to get out before-"_

 _That was as far as she got. A flare shot off behind her, fire erupting out of the hallway as the whole hallway lit up and the building buckled. River threw up her arms, locking them in a box. All of them but Rachel, who stumbled out of her range. The fire hit her hard, flinging her forwards. The walls shattered and Rivers skin follow suit. She screamed and the world went dark as the building consumed her._

 _She came into awareness hours later. The smell of burnt flesh and blood and dust hung heavy on her tongue. She had to claw her way out of the rubble, dragging herself into the evening air. The sun blazed across the red sand, scorching everything. Black smoke floated above the rocks as she dragged herself to her feet. Blood dripped freely from her skin. She stumbled, looking around. All around her were chunks of stone, splatters of red and bits of corpses poking out._

 _River stumbled forwards. She pushed stones out of the way mechanically. She had to find them. She had to find them._

 _It was hours before anyone else showed up. Paramedics arrived. By the time they were there she had already dug out a hundred people. Rachel included. Rachel, Trevor. Farah. And Farah's daughter, her body broken as her doll._

 _"_ _Please," she begged the sky, "Please. Let me find one. Just one,"_ just one more survivor, please.

 _Her prayers went unanswered. The cops took her statements, her people were excavated, those that were more than bloody past and dog tags. As soon as she was able, River pulled herself away from the cops, from the concerned paramedics, from the fire fighters._

 _She walked into the desert to die, but death never came for her._


	33. Hopewell

By the time River finds the store that everyone had disappeared into it was already closed, and empty. She broke into it, searched around, and found a weird basement with cups and goblets and paint on the blood in fancy designs. River could only assume it was more magic. Witches, maybe. They explained how they had followed her. River had identified everyone who had followed after her except for two women. Jack Cast, Serenity Moglia, Chick Bradshaw, Ray Kennedy, and Takashi Singh.

She spent hours on the computer too, reading up on BNHA, taking notes and writing frantically.

She knew she knew Shin Nemoto from somewhere. He was one of Overhauls boys. She didn't read too much further than she had been before. She didn't want to spoil everything. She wanted to go home and have fun.

But before she could go home, there was one more person she had to find. And so she went back to the place where everything began.

The town sits in the middle of what had once been the dust bowl, and was steadily going back there. A town of less than a thousand people, with two hundred houses still standing. The river that River had been named for, the Rio Escondido River. It was more like a creek even in her childhood, and it emptied into a proper river a few miles outside of town. But it snaked through the village, a ribbon of blue, that cut under bridges and fed the fields. Stalks of oats and corn sprung up, but they were smaller than ever when she drove back into the city in a hot wired truck, a suit case sitting in the back seat from Taro's house.

River had known everyone in town, at one point, but it's been thirty two years since she'd stepped foot here, and she didn't care for many long winded reunions. There's three people she needs to see.

Archie, Eddie, and Bill.

Archie was already cold in the ground, drunk and driven off of a bridge a few years after River had left. Bill had left town, joined the army, and retired in a Nebraska retirement center, so out of his mind with dimensia River doubted he even know his own name, let alone hers.

So she goes to Eddie. The only one left in town.

He still has a the same house, though the porch is new and upgraded. Colleen was seventeen when she had River, and Clyde was twenty five. His friends had been his age, and now Eddie lived with his wife in the house on Dover. He was sixty two, and it showed. He was thin, his hands tough from field work and his cheeks sunked with age and thin skin.

River sat on his table, watching him walk inside. His wife was sleeping in their bedroom, and she'd stay sleeping for another couple of hours. River had only tapped her a little bit on the back of the neck.

Eddie moved around the room, grabbing a beer before he did anything else. River curled her lip in distaste.

"You know," she said quietly, "Sometimes I wonder what would have happened to me if you hadn't been such a coward."

He doesn't jump, a credit to his character. He stands and turns to look at her. His pale blue eyes are distant, an unafraid.

"I knew you weren't dead," he said instead if trying to deny her words or protect himself.

"Course I'm not. Hi, uncle Eddie."

"Hey River. It's been a minute."

River motions to his beer and he hands it over without a word. He sat the the table in front of her, looking tired.

"Is this it then? Your revenge?"

"No," River shook her head, swirling the beer around idly. "I don't kill people for revenge."

Eddie looks at her, his brows furrowed. "No. No I guess you don't."

He'd not much different than she remembers. He even drinks the same beer. The night that she'd been about to die, the night she killed her first father, Clyde Kelly, he'd been in the other room with Archie and Bill, playing poker with Clyde as they did ever week. And ever week Clyde locked her in the kitchen and beat her while they sat in the other room, listening to cry and beg for help. But help never came. Not until she helped herself. Clyde had been smashing her head against the fridge, his hands around her throat, when she'd kicked out. She hadn't know what death was then. She certainly hadn't known that it could come if you broke someones trachea, by kicking them as hard as you could in the neck.

No one had done anything to help her, but they'd come to check on Clyde when everything was too quiet for a few minutes. River had sat at Clyde's side while he choked to death.

"If you had stepped in, if you had stopped him, or told Sheriff Stone, everything would have been different."

"All those people you killed would still be alive."

River snorted and barked a laugh. "Don't be ridiculous. I was contracted to kill them, and if I hadn't done it someone else would have. Don't be so self asorbed, Uncle Eddie."

He laughed too, a hollow, dusty sound.

"Are you here for long, River?"

"No," she shook her head and stood up, "Not long at all. I just wanted to see you one last time."

Eddie closed his eyes with a grimace. River started walking, but he caught her hand and pulled her attention back to him. His blue eyes were wide and ernest and filled with sadness.

"I'm sorry, River. I should have done something. I should have helped you."

River felt the smallest of smiles cross her face. "Yeah," she agreed. "You should have. But that's over now, Eddie."

She pulled her hand from his and left, shutting the light behind her so he might have privacy to shed his tears.

* * *

She finds _him_ at a crossroads.

It's cliche, she thinks, but her journey began at a crossroads, and now here she is again.

Not in a city, but in Hopewell Oklahoma.

She can taste it in the air. Familiarity, and she knows that when she looks back behind her it will be her childhood home standing at her back, shadowed and silent.

He's sitting on the hood of her car, relaxed as he could be. Blond hair frames his soft cheeks in neat curls, cherubic in its way, that doesn't match the cigarette that curls smoke up towards the blackened sky.

She should feel like she's walking towards the gallows, she thinks, or strolling up to a long cliff. Instead, she feels at peace for the first time in a long time.

When he looks at her, his eyes are familiar. Dark. Like a sea that has drowned the sun. His mouth curves into a smile that has just the right amount of teeth, though the cigarette doesn't move with it. It stays perfectly in place. The only real sign that he's Other.

River, with her yellow coyote eyes and her blood streaked hair, cannot say the same.

He offers her his hand, palm up. Friendly.

"Will I die if I touch you?" She asks, even as she lays her hand in his.

"That's not how it works," he assures her. His hand is cold. River doesn't mind. She turns so she's standing beside him and they can both look at the house that built her. The place where they first met, thirty two years ago.

It stands before them, still and quiet, and so cold. It was empty. There were no devils in the windows. She had killed the one that lived there.

"Aren't you angry with me?" She asks, for she has to. The man looks at her, pale cheeks dimpled when he smiled at her. She felt so young beside him. She was, so _very_ young.

"Why would I be angry with you, River Kelly?"

"Quinton," she corrects. Like Taro. Like her real father. "Because, I can't die. "

"River _Quinton_. Of course you can die. You will die. Eventually, everyone does. Sweet girl, don't you know by now? I am inevitable. "

"But I fight you. And I've sent so many people into your arms." She doesn't regret it. She can't. She won't. "Doesn't that, I don't know. Upset you? Haven't I thrown some balance out or something."

Soft fingers twirl the errant strands of red away from her temples.

"Sweet girl," he says again, "You have sent many to my inevitability, but it would happen no matter what. It always does. And you, too, will come home to me someday. But you _fight_ , River. You always have, since that first day here, when you denied me and Clyde Kelly. You fought and I hope you keep fighting, for years, and when you finally lay at rest I can show you exactly what awaits."

River's breath is hitched. She can't explain why she's crying. There's no sorrow or fear, for all there should be. She knows what awaits her at her end. But holding his hand, she's not afraid of it, and she truly does not regret what she's done.

Death was inevitable. Inescapable. She was just very good at fighting him.

"Thank you," she says.

When she stands, he doesn't stop her. Let's her hand go, cooler than it was. She walks slowly up the long pathway to her childhood home. To the house where she first cried, first bled, first killed. It's just as she remembers. The front step creeks when she puts her weight on it. There's cobwebs hanging thick and heavy across the window panes.

River pushes the door open. The lock clicks, giving way easily under her hand. It swings forth and she walks in, disturbing dust of years gone by. The smell of copper is long gone, overtaken by mold. The house never sold, after Clyde died. She coudln't say she blamed anyone for that bit.

There's still poker cards on the table, but the beer cans are gone. Archie, Eddie, and Bill had left quite a mess when they'd run out of the house. There were deep gauges on the floor that even the years hadn't faded. When she walks into the kitchen part of her expects to see Clyde on the floor, where she'd left him, with his throat caved in and bubbling foam around his mouth.

But he is long gone, and so is the little girl with bruises on her neck and arms. In her place stands River, pulling open a drawer and removing a lighter.

When she turns around, there is a blond man sitting on the counter. The dust is undisturbed. He watches her with fathomless eyes. His skin is less soft now, tighter around his cheeks. His hair is straight and falls across his forehead.

He watches her move around the room, tipping out long spoilt olive oil. Out of the cupboard she produces the lantern oil they used during blackouts. Everything is familiar in the way that a dream is. She pours the oil across the floor, dumping it all out across the floor. It spreads further than what should fit in the bottle.

When River leans down and lights it, the fire leaps and reaches for her face.

As she stands the burns heal themselves, slower than usual but there all the same.

The man appears in the growing flames. They jump and dance around the pair, reaching high and fast. Eating up the past. He offers her his hand once more and she takes it, his skin pale and cold even in the growing inferno. Her skin chars, sloughs off, and regrows in the time it takes them to walk out the front door.

They walk, Death and the Death Dealer, away from the burning house on Russel Street, towards the crossroads and towards the future. Inevitable, perhaps, but a lot could happen before she was killed.

Death smiles at her with just the right amount of teeth and River can't help laughing.


	34. Departing Death

River doesn't know how long she spends with Death. Talking, freely for the first time in years. There is nothing for her to hide from him, no darkness he has not seen, and he taken her hand tells her things she didn't know. Things about people she has already met, and people she probably never will. He tells her about witches and Dead Faces, and revenants, and a woman called Heather Aster, who River has never met and never will.

He loads her onto a plane going back to Japan, piloted by a man with bright green skin and yellow eyes. She can taste the difference now, in the air, between the world she had been born to and the one she had died to see.

"I'll see you again, River," Death promises her as they part ways at the airport.

"No offense, but I hope its not for a while. I don't want to burn for eternity for a while longer," she laughs. Death touches her cheek, his fingers soft and cool to her skin, tracing silver scars half gone.

"Hell isn't a place of eternal torment," he told her quietly. The rest of the world fell silent, leaving them alone with this small comfort. "It is a purifying place, where sins are melted off like candle wax. Once the soul is innocent again, free of sin and guilt, and memories of past deeds it passes on."

"Passes on where?" River asks, wonderous and lightheaded.

Death cocked his head. "Do you really want to know?"

River thinks on that before she shakes her head. "No," she said with a smile. "No. What's life without a bit of mystery?"

Death laughs at her and lets go of her, stepping away. She blinks and he's gone, and she's standing in an airport. The red eye has dropped her off a bit shy of midnight. She's come back early, by a couple, of days, so there's no one to pick her up.

That's okay. She has something to do before she goes to see her hero friends again.

* * *

River all but skips down the streets of Kamino Ward. Being back in the city has her feeling bright and her heart has finally settled. Neither heavy nor light, just beating strong in her chest. Dabi wasn't at the bar, and she didn't know where he lived, so she skipped him over for the time being.

She finds the building easy enough, and she's ditched her tail a while ago. Now she slips inside, Quiet, crawling up the side of the building like a demented lizard. Her bare feet balance precariously as she opens the window and steps inside.

She was expecting trash littering the floor, or clothes all piled in a corner. Instead it remarkably clean. The bin in the corner is full of ashes, and black clothes are hung from a closet missing a door. The computer is dark and off but still she covers the video monitor with a piece of a sticky note.

The bed is messy and when she sits on it she can catch the vague scent of ashes, boy, and cinnamon. The walls are lined with video games, ranging from something like Call of Duty to what River identifies as Otome games. She wants to laugh, thinking of all the reader insert fanfictions featuring him in it. If only she could tell him how weirdly popular he was in another dimension.

But she can't. Won't. It wouldn't do any good. She's already changing things. She wants to warn him about Overhaul. She wants to take Overhaul down on her own.

River wants a lot of things and she's about done waiting around to do them.

She sit in the darkness, thinking on the people below. She can here a high voice, giggly and wild. A deeper voice pitched to higher notes. If she focuses she can hear the words, and underneath all that the buzz of the electricity inside of them. Five people. Toga, Magne. She can hear the vaguely ragged breathing of Dabi. The slight squeak of cleaning glass. Kurogiri? And a muttered complaint about them being annoying. Tomura Shigaraki.

His footsteps, only a bit heavier than her own, sound on the staircase a few minutes later. River watched the door open and Tomura shuffled inside. He took the hand off of his face, holding it ever so carefully, and set it on the desk. Next to a tube of cherry chapstick.

River grinned.

"I can't believe you kept that," is what she wanted to say.

What came out was, " I can't belie- eeb!"

Tomura had better reflexes than she was expecting and the second she opened her mouth he had spun around and launched himself across the room, hand outstretched to kill her. River caught his wrists and flipped the both of the over, so Tomura was laid out on the bed and she was sitting on his thighs, keeping him beneath her as she pinned his hands by his shoulders.

"Hey, hey, take it easy," she soothed. His bangs obscured most of his death adder eyes, but she could see the curl of his lip, the fury in it.

"Why are you here? Let me go!"

River changes her grip on him, moving her hands until her fingers slot between his and she sits back, still on his legs, but he can rise now. He does, slowly, staring at their joined hands like he's never seen such a sight. For all she knows he hasn't. Only a crazy person would hold hands with him.

He keeps his pinkie raised delicately above her hand, and River feels a smile cross her face

"Sorry I surprised you," she says, honest. "I didn't wanna deal with the front door."

"I could have killed you," he snapped. "I _should_ kill you."

"You can try," she offers. "Drop your pinkie. Maybe my hands will disintegrate, but they'll grow back. You touched me a couple times at the USJ, remember?"

"You gouged out Nomu's eyes," he recalls, frowning. She shrugs, unapologetic.

"I should have just chopped him into cubes of meat."

"Why didn't you?"

Rivers nose scrunches upwards. "I was trying to hide. I hesitated." But she was done with that now.

Abruptly, the pinkie on her right hand dropped. She felt her skin tingle and give way under five fingers, followed by muscle and bone. The decay eats right through her hand. River pulls it away from Tomura, marveling at the creeping lines that spreads across her skin until it flakes and falls away.

She holds her hand off the bed and cuts her arm off an inch or so before the growing ash. It falls into a box she makes of air, followed by a splash of blood. Her arm flows red like a demented faucet as bones grow back, reaching from the bloody depths. They're laced with tendons and ligaments, and then fleshy muscles grows over, and finally the nerves set in. Her jaw twitched as they hiss as being new and exposed to air until the skin grows over. There's not a scar to be found that wasn't there before.

The whole process takes two minutes, tops.

"That was rude," she accuses harmlessly. She draws their hands down until she has Tomura's palm up in her lap and she can rest their fingertips together. She likes touching his hands. Every time she does he looks at her like she's an alien.

"Didn't that hurt?"

"I guess? It sorta tingled more than anything. Like the nerves were definitely dying , but it was happening too fast to be too painful. I dunno, lots of things hurt, you know?"

Of course he does. He pulls his hands out of her grasp and wraps them loosely around her throat, thumbs raised threateningly. She watches him. It's dark, and the shadows cast on his face are deep. River pulls a spare hair clip out of her pocket and, very slowly, reaches for Tomura. He twitches back but doesn't try to kill her. He sits,, rigid, as she smoothes her fingers through his tangled hair until she can clip it in place, bangs out the way. Now she can see his face. Hollow, ghoulish in the darkness. He's so damn skinny, she wants to force feed him Cane's.

"There," she says, satisfied. "Now I can see your handsome face."

Tomura stiffens and sputters and River lifts her hand in front of her face in a mimicry of Father.

"Get it? Hand-some!" Her grin is shit eating.

His face, skin stretched taut over delicate bones, twists in anger. He presses his thumbs to her throat. She yanks back, almost tips off the bed, gasping, and promptly cuts her whole throat off. A circle of bloody flesh falls around her shoulders before it shimmers into dust and red pours briefly from her newly skinned throat.

Now that she can see his face properly she can see the flash from fury to panic to relief that covers his expression. That was why.

His touch was sticking now. He'd started to like her.

 _Oh dear._

She coughs, rubbing her new throat, the skin healed faster than bones or missing limb. "Was that necessary?" She asks, shooting him a baleful look.

"Don't make fun of me!"

The frown on her face fades. She turns to him again, this time sitting side to side, hip to hip, facing opposite directions. Her arm crosses over his middle and her right shoulder brushes his.

"Honey. I'm not making fun of you, I was just making a pun. You're not such a sore sight, and I'm not that type of bitch. "

He glares at her, but she remains unrelenting. Honest. He was a frightening creature, in his own way, but he wasn't ugly. And honestly, in a world as strange as this one, anyone who thought he was was probably a hypocrite.

"You could use some moisturizer, sure, but that's all." She touches his face, gently. He's coiled tight and when her thumb brushes the edge of the scar that bisects his lip she half expects him to bite her.

He doesn't, miraculously, but he still looks furious. "Shut up. Tell me why you're here!"

"I can't do both of those," she says smartly. His hand lands on her rib and she frowns, just a little. "I like this shirt," she tells him firmly.

"Then talk and you can keep it."

River hallways wants to call him a pervert, but she figures she's teased the poor boy long enough.

"I came to apologize," she says at last. "For getting you caught up in that business with the Damned. "

"Oh. That. " the way he says 'that' makes it sound like the kidnapping wasn't even particularly eventful.

"Yes. That. I'm sorry they came after you, because of me. "

"How did they know you?" He asks. River bumps his hip with hers.

"Darling, you're smart enough to figure that out."

"Nothing about you makes sense," he hisses in her face. His hand comes up and starts scratching at his neck, dragging into the scarred skin there. "You have all the papers but you can do things that normal people can't. I saw you move. Heroes don't move that way. Regular people don't move that way!"

River touched his shoulder, ever so lightly, her pale skin a stark contrast to both his black sweatshirt and the dark lace that lined it. He looked at her, his eyes wild and vicious. River recognizes them. Was this how she looked, when Taro first found her? Wild and paranoid and expecting the worst out of everyone? If she had never been caught, if she had never been a part of REACH, would this be how she still looked?

"I killed my father," she says suddenly, and he comes totally still. His fingers stopped scrabbling frantically at his throat. His wide eyes zero in on her. "After that I was found and taken in by my dad. A man named Taro. He was a hitman. I stayed with him for years. Then I killed him, too. To protect my friends. Two fathers and I killed them both. After that, my friends died, or left, and I did too. "

"And now you go to hero school."

"And now I go to Hero school," she confirms.

" _Why?_ "

River closes her eyes. "Because… I'm tired of only knowing how to kill. I don't want this world to be full of violence. I don't want children like us to exist. I don't want the cycle of violence to go on."

"And you think the heroes are going to end it? They're just government issues terrors, they get away with any kind of violence and they get paid for it, lauded for it!"

"I know," her soft voice smoothes out some of the wrinkles on his face, so twisted with rage. "Believe me, I know. Endeavor? Child abuser, wife abuser, potential rapist. I'm not 100 % on that last one. Heroes are people, and turning the title of hero into an occupation was harsh kind of propaganda kept up by the government. It's actually easy to see, especially for people like us. But it's nicer to believe in something better."

River pulled away from him then, tipping back off the bed. She planted her hand on the floor and swung her legs above her head in a strange type of cartwheel. She stepped back, into the shadows. To the window.

"I'll see you around, Tomura Shigaraki."


	35. Reconciliation

She invites them all over to her apartment. It's a squeeze, there's teenagers packed on ever available surface. Jin's apartment is empty, she's very certain that he's at the bar right now. It makes it easier, he already knows plenty about her life.

Todoroki and Tokoyami had taken up residence on opposite ends of her couch, and in between Kaminari was pushed nexto to Jiro, with Yaomomo half on top of both of their laps. Mina and Uraraka, and Tsu as well, laid out on her bed. Even Bakugou was there, sitting backwards on a chair like a delinquent. Midoriya and Iida sat at the table. She felt a little bad for leaving some of the class out, but these were ones she was really close with, and the ones she felt like needed to know most.

River herself sat on a platform in the middle of the room, floating across the floor.

"So," she said.

"Are you gonna tell us whatever we're here for, or keep beating around the damn bush?" Bakugou asked irritably. Everyone but him as a juice box, and a few bags of chips lay around. River had pizza in the oven, and it was starting to smell like it. She cracks a smile at Bakugou's bluntness. She did appreciate it.

"Yeah. Yeah, I am," this was the most nerve wracking thing she'd done in a while, but she couldn't back down now, and she was done hiding. She had done what she had done. Nothing would change that now.

"You all heard what happened to Uraraka, Yaomomo, Jiro, Kaminari and Todoroki right?" she waited until everyone nodded, some looking more traumatized than others. They hadn't been able to reattach Uraraka's finger in time, and so she was still without it. It made River sick with guilt, but she couldn't do anything about that now.

"The truth is… The truth is this is harder than I was expecting," she toyed with a red curl that fell against her cheek, her yellow eyes distant. "It's weird. How much I care about what you guys think of me. "

"River," Yaomomo reached over to touch her shoulder. "No matter what you say, you'll still be our friend."

River glanced at her. "Even if I say I would make a better villain than a hero?"

"That can' be right!" Kaminari argues viciously. River smiles at him, her heart softening to hear his confidence in her. Nevertheless, she persisted.

"It can be, babes," she says quietly. She can feel, more than anyone, Midoriya watching her. She remembers, he was the first one to understand that she had killed her father. And here she was, about to tell them things that few people ever knew about her.

"Okay," no more procrastinating. "The truth, the reason I can fight like I can, and the reason those people came after my friends to get at me. It's because…"

"I was raised to be an assassin."

Her confession meets utter silence. She waits, giving them time to digest what she's just said. Iida shakes his head violently, even as the truth sinks in. Her bed breaks into hurried, frantic whispers.

"I'm not telling you any of this to get you to pity me, or cry," She tells them swiftly. "I'm telling you this because you're going to be around me, and youre my friends, and you deserve to know. Especially everyone whos already been hurt because of me. "

"My whole life," she says slowly, "The only thing I've ever been good for is hurting people. When I was a kid, my mother left. She hated me. She was only seventeen when she got knocked up. She dropped out of school, got married, and lost her dream of being an actress. She named me River, because that's where she should have drowned me. In the River. I don't remember much about her, she split before I even got to pre-k. My dad started drinking after that, and you know how drunk dads go," she tries to joke, but no one here holds her same gallows humor. She wrinkles her nose. "He uh. He had me by the throat. I was about five, I think. He kept beating my head against the fridge. I uh. I didn't know what I was doing, I kicked him in the throat. Broke his trachea. And he died."

She's met with silence. Kaminari, who had defended her so viciously, looks pale.

River goes on.

"I went to foster care for a while, but no one wants a problem child. Someone like me. I ran away as soon as as I could. I tried to go to LA, to find my mom. I was too young to really understand what it was that she was. Horrible, that is, and uninterested in raising me. I just wanted a mom ,like the ones on tv. I never found her. I ended up fighting for money, underground, I don't even know how I found that. Taro, a hitman, found me while I was in there."

"Heroes never came for me," she says, voice feather light and velvet soft. "No matter how much I hurt, how scared I was, heroes never came. But Taro did. He found me. I thought he was going to kill me, but he raised me up instead. Picked me out of the dust, took me somewhere safe. He taught me how to protect myself. He taught me how to play piano, and sing, and make cake in mugs," she can't help the smile that crosses her face. "he was my father. My real father. I worked for him, with a woman named Black Lace Anne," she turns her marked hand over a few times. "We took over the entire north American underground. Until the day I got caught by the government. I was given a choice. Jail or work on a task force for them. The choice was easy."

"What wasn't easy was working with people and not getting close to them. Taro always said my heart was too soft. Jess, and Gen followed me from the underground. We were all about the same age. Just kids, sucked into a world too big for us. And, one day, we were lured into a trap. Taro was there. He tried to kill Jess, and I-"

Here she had to stop. She isn't looking at anyone, trying to work the words across her tongue.

"I shot him. Between the ribs. He bled to death."

"Oh, _shit_ ," Jiro says eloquently. That about sums it all up, doesn't it? Shit.

"Yeah. The black ops unit I was with was destroyed not too long after that. I was the only survivor. I struck a deal with the government. Do one more job for them, and I'm free to do whatever I wanted. No record, no survailance. Just. Freedom."

"I was owed a favor. I enrolled in UA, and here I am," she gestures vaguely. And waits.

"That's… so fucked up," Hagakure says at length. It's the first time River's ever heard her cuss, and it's pretty good timing. Enough to make her laugh.

"Yeah, yeah. Story of my life."

It's Bakugou who snorts derisively at her. "Who gives a shit what you did before? You're here now, aren't you?"

River looks at him, mouth open with words she doesn't know how to say. He's right but, it's such a strange thing. To be told it doesn't matter.

"It explains a lot," Midoriya says quietly. "Like how you took on that Nomu, and why you can disappear like that. You've been fighting longer than any of us, it's no wonder no one could beat you at the Sports Fest." It was no wonder she beat Stain, but he can't say that. "So all those people who hurt everyone, and attacked the mall. They were people you'd hurt before all of this?"

"Yeah, pretty much. I don't like hurting people," River tells him emphatically. "It's not something I get off on. I don't shy away from violence, but I'm… tired. I'm tired of fighting being the only option I have. I want to find a way to do something else. And a way to keep other kids from hurting like I did."

"I don't know how. But I think UA is my best chance to achieve that," she says quietly, shutting her eyes. The back of her lids is red, red, red.

Arms wrap firmly around her shoulders, dragging her into a soft body. Her eyes snap open and she drops, landing on her feet, half dragged into Uraraka's arms. She's shaking, River realizes distantly. Shaking and soft and warm.

"Ura-raka?" she asks quietly.

"Don't hide so much from us anymore, okay? We're your friends. We can take it. Even if you were bad before, it's like Bakugou said. You're here now."

Slwoly, very slowly, she wraps her arms around Uraraka in turn and hugs her close, breaking in the smell of vanilla and motor oil.

The world felt just a little bit brighter like this.


	36. Bad Battles

**Okay yall. I'm just gonna go ahead and say this; nothing is betad, nothing is edited, and nothing it going to get edited once it's posted. sorry!**

* * *

River tried not to look too out of place as she sat outside the principals room, watching the cloud pass through the window outside. She wasn't sure how much she liked what she was about to do, but it was what it was. She couldn't hide who she was from them. She wouldn't. She didn't hide from her friends, either.

It was another few minutes before the door opened. Shinso walked out, who she'd spoken to shortly after the rest of her friends and at a different sleep over. He hadn't been even a little surprised. Now here she was.

She smiled at him and he returned the gesture before holding the door open.

River stepped inside. The reds of her hair were braided and pinned to the back of her head, while the rest of her hair, barely touching her shoulders when wet now, fluttered around her cheeks.

She walked inside. The office smelled like lemons and milk, a weird combination that wasn't as bad as it seemed like it should. Nezu sat behind his desk, papers folded neatly in front of him. River came to a halt in front of him. He hopped off his chair and came around the side, smiling brightly as her. He started a little tea brewing station on a coffee table.

"River! Thank you for coming in today. I trust your trip was relaxing?" he went to sit on one of the two couches that faced eachother in the cornrer of the room. River sat across from him, back straight and hands planted on her thighs. She didn't know why she felt like she was about to get into a fight.

"Not even a little, but thank you," she cracked a smile at him. Honestly, half of the trip felt like a dream. The only reason she was sure it had even happened was because she still had an unopened purple box from Abuela.

"Then have you come to your dicision?" The smile on his face said he already knew the answer. It was a little bit infuriating. River ignored that and nodded.

"Yes. I want to stay at this school. But," she said slowly, "I need to make sure that you understand what that means for you." Here, she leaned forwards, her yellow eyes intent on the funny little mammal in front of her.

"Go on," he encouraged, his high voice clear and soothing.

River clasped her hands in front of her.

"I'm not a good person. I've done worse things than anyone in this school. I've probably done worse things that most villains that you've faced. I'm dangerous, Nezu, and my impulse reaction to every situation is almost always to kill whoever is causing it. I've hesitated a lot, over the last few months. And because I hesitated Tenya was hurt. Aizawa was almost killed. Tsu almost died. So I am done hesitating.

I'm not saying that the second I get into a fight I'm going to go on a murderous rampage, but I'm not one to shy away from bloodshed and if you're going to teach me," she took a breath, "You're going to have to know that."

Nezu poured her some tea and passed it across the table to her.

"I know that. Truthfully, Aizawa and I have known that there was something different about you for a long time. I'm very glad that you feel comfortable coming to me with this, and being honest as well. I can't say I'm entirely comfortable with someone with your past around my students, but you are also one of my students, and it's my duty to guide you on your path to being a hero. If that means that we have to train your base impulses right out of you, so be it."

That… hadn't been what she was getting at at all. She blinked at him a couple of times, processing it. He thought he could change her impulses? It had been years since she'd killed anyone and they hadn't faded at all. She doubted any training could change them.

Nezu didn't give her the chance to argue.

"We'll work on it during your training camp. Before that camp, I do have something to ask you to do."

"Uh, okay?" River wasn't sure where this was going, or if she liked it, but Nezu smiled brightly at her.

"Excellent. Since you weren't actually challenged during your final exam, and since no one here had seen you fight when you were serious, we have no idea how skilled you actually are. So, you're going to fight each and every one of us teachers tomorrows.

River stared at him.

"Oh," was all she said. That was… fair, actually. "Okay."

* * *

River stood in black yoga pants and a tank top. There was nothing special about her hero suit, and it didn't feel much like her suit anymore any how, so she favored street clothes when they gathered in the training grounds. It wasn't the woods, like she'd been in before, but the mock city that Bakugou and Midoriya had fought All Might in. The only person she wouldn't be fighting was Presend Mic, who she'd already beat.

Apparently if she could walk past him she could stab him, and so her pass from him counted.

River scratched the back of her neck, not quite nervous. The skin caught the silver scars across her arms, old and faded, and the star bursts that crowned her head in a mockery of stigmata.

She was the smallest person there, not counting the principal, but she felt no fear. A very intense and nerve wracking attraction when she looked at Midnight, but no fear.

"So," she said, "Who's first?"

It was, of course, Midnight who stepped up. She pulled out her whip, snapping it with a flourish. Recovery girl stood on the side lines, ready to intervene. River watched the rest of the teachers walk off. They'd wanted her to fight without holding back. She would do as well as she could, and enough to give them an idea of what she was able to do with and without her power.

"Get ready, River, this will hurt you a lot more than it will hurt me!" Midnight, grinned sadistically at her.

"Nope," River disagreed. Midnight ripped off a chunk of her hero suit, releasing a cloud of knock out gas that floated towards River. River, who didn't even try to dodge. She took a deep breath and walked forwards. She only felt a little bit light headed.

"Tastes sweet," River commented idly. Midnight looked mildly shocked. She lashed out at River with her whip. River lifted her arm, letting the whip snap around it like a vice. It stopped Midnight long enough for her to crack her neck to the side. Midnight shouted, dropping limply to the ground. Blood seeped from her ankles, back, shoulders, and arms where River had cut her tendons. River unwrapped the whip from around her arm, letting it drop to the ground. Recovery Girl came rushing over, fussing at them.

River huffed at the glare Recovery Girl shot her.

"He told me not to hold back!" she pointed an accusing finger at Nezu, who was unconcerned.

"Ectoplasmer can go next," he said, unaffected by what she'd just done. The next teacher looked about as worried as he ever did.

They waited until Recovery Girl and Midnight were clear before Nezu told them to go.

Extoplasmer leaned his head back and opened his mouth. In the time it took him to retch out half the material needed to make a clone River crossed the space between them and smashed her elbow into his guts. He crumpled in half, giving her the chance to beat down on his head with her clasped fists. He landed in a puddle of grey sludge, limp. It was over in seconds.

Cementoss offered her more of a challenge, but she realized quickly that she could slice his creations into cubes and disappear while he wasn't paying attention. She almost broke her hand punching him in the jaw, but never the less she knocked him out and locked him in a box.

Powerloaded she just straight up locked in a box, not bothing to mess around with his land mine tricks. She could walk on air, so it was a moot point anyhow. Thirteen went much the same way.

Snipe, who had faced Hagakure, was more weary of her disappearing acts.

When she took one of his bullets he faltered long enough for her to kick his teeth in and take his gun, disassembling it and dropping the parts on his chest.

"I hate guns," she told him flatly. She was down to three. Nezu, Aizawa, and All Might.

Nezu abstained, River didn't want to think of why, and All Might was busy that day, so she was put in front of Aizawa.

They stood across from eachother. He pulled up his goggles.

"Just hand to hand then, I guess," River said lightly. Actually, she didn't know if her power even counted as a quirk he could erase, but she didn't feel like messing with it. They began.

Aizawa lashed out with his capture gear, but River evaded, dancing between strands of the strange scarf. She twisted and spun around, light on her feet. Aizawa came at her with feet and fists and she met him in kind. They beat eachother hard and River was delighted to find that the bruises he inflicted stayed. He liked her. He really liked her!

That didn't stop her from catching his fights, twisting on her hip and throwing him. He landed on his feet but in the brief second it took him to look back at her she was gone.

She came at him from the side, swinging around his neck by her ankles. She caught him around his throat and threw her weight across his back, smacking his knees with her elbows until they buckled and he was sent flying into the ground. He lay still, down for the count.

River stood up, brushing her pants off.

She looked over at her teachers, who all looked horrified at what she'd just accomplished.

"So…" she said, "Do I pass?"


	37. The Stairways Not To Heaven

The I-Expo had been… a trip. And a story for another time. River was more excited, now, for the camping/training hell.

River only has her one backpack. She's always been good at travelling light, and so she's the second one on the bus after Todoroki, who'd gotten to school to meet up early. Everyone else was stuck waiting for Yaomomo to finish stuffing her bags into the luggage carrier on the bus.

Todoroki sat in the middle of the bus, with an open seat on either side of him. . The bus was strange, it had two seats that face forwards, a line of seats that pressed against the sides, and the back was slightly elevated to make room for the cargo hold, where the seats faced forwards as well.

River paused in front of him, looking from one seat to the other, thinking hard.

Todoroki looked up at her.

"Did you, need something?" he asked, his low voice quiet. He was always quiet.

"Well," she said, "You run hot or cold depending on which side of you it is. And I'm gonna sit by you. So, I need to decide if I wanna be warm or cooler. Of course, bus rides are usually pretty hot, especially when there's lots of people on board, and I'm not big on the heat…"

She plopped down on his right side, ignoring the curious look he shot her. Everyone else piled in soon after, giddy and bouncing and excited. Kaminari was talking Jiro's ears off while Yaomomo and Hagakure went over what they'd bought to to wear during the trip. To the side Uraraka was dizzy with the price tags Yamomo casually dropped. Midoriya took up Todoroki's opposite side from River, Tokoyami sat across from her with Mineta on one side and Tsu on the other. Shoji, Sato and Ojiro sat in the front seats behind Aizawa. Sero, Aoyama, and Mina sat in the very back seats.

Which meant that Bakugou dropped unceremoniously into the seat beside River, taking up all four of them. She stared at him, surprised. He barely even looked at her.

After her little confession with the rest of the class he'd begun talking with her again, or at least as much as he ever had. He was still gruff and irritable, but he didn't avoid her or accuse her of dumb things. He seemed to understand her whole 'I don't want to kill you' thing a bit more.

River looked across at Tokoyami, who gave her a pitying look. Stuck between Bakugou and Todroki, Angry Boi and Blunt Babe.

River, who had spent years in NYC and most of that time riding a subway, spread herself out instead of making herself small and leaned her head back. The bus started up a few minutes later with Aizawa in the front. Class 1-A and 1-B were separated, which was probably for the best. Monema was fucking nuts.

The whole separate home room classes was still weird for her. And the inter class rivalry? Goddamn Bizarre. It was like something out of Harry Potter.

Admittedly River hadn't gone to American public school, but she'd spent a lot of time in colleges, and they were just a bunch of rotating, overly exhausted twenty-somethings. She'd seen people come in in everything from giraffe onsies to club clothes from the night before to full tuxedoes. College kids were weird, and by the time they got to her class none of them really gave too shits.

"Hey, you know what we should do?" Mina asked suddenly.

"Play spin the bottle?" Mineta hzarded, smiling perversely. River made a mental note to beat his face in. What a disgusting person. It was a little bit funny on screen, but in person? He made her skin crawl.

"No! We should sing songs!"

Chatter lifted, people agreeing or opting out.

"I dunno, I don't usually sing in front of people," Sero said nervously.

"Oh come on!" Mina shoved him, "It'll be fun! Who knows how to sing?" She looked right at Jiro, who shrunk into the collar of her jacket.

"Hey! Don't look at me that way!" she blushed high on her face. River laughed at how cute she was. Jiro was good at music, but she was stage shy.

River cleared her throat.

" _Comin out of my cage and I've been doing just fine, Gotta gotta be down because I want it all. It started out with a kiss, how did it end up like this, how did it end up like this?It was only a kiss!"_

Mina perked up and picked up with her, along with Aoyama.

 _"_ _Now I'm falling asleep, and she's calling a cab, and he's having a smoke while she's taking a drag, and now they're going to bed, and my stomach is sick!"_

One by one the others joined in, until only Midoriya, Iida, Todoroki and Bakugou weren't belting out the lyrics with the rest of them, stumbling over the English but having the time of their lives.

"Yes!" Mina cheered, throwing her hands up.

River knew mostly American songs, but there were a few others she knew. Ones that were half and half, or anime openings, but she kept up with the next few songs as they rotated through Japanese and Korean pop. Finally they circled back around to River, who laughed at them.

" _A long, long, time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile. And I knew if I have my chance, that I could make those people dance and maybe they'd be happy for a while. But February made me shiver with every paper I'd deliver. Bad news on the door step, I couldn't take one more step. I can remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride, but something touched my deep inside the day the music died._

 _"_ _So bye bye miss American pie, drove my chevy to the levy but the levy was dry and them good ol' boys were drinking whiskey and rye singing 'this'll be the day that I die!"_

She elbowed Shouto, grinning at him until he finally looked away from her.

"Did you write the book of love, And do you have faith in God above, if the Bible tells you so? Do you believe in rock and roll?"

His voice was quiet but it was the best thing River had heard all morning. Bakugou sparked and started yelling the chorus wile Mina shrieked with laughter and River lead the band along, singing durdges in the dark, the day the music died…

They pulled to a stop all too soon. River had been ready for an actual long Roadtrip, but it was barely an hour outside of city limits that they pulled to a stop. God japan was tiny.

Everyone piled out of the bus. River was the only one who knew what was going on. She nudged Mina, whispering in her ear while Aizawa climbed out after them, keeping a close eye on Mineta. Mina spread the word to Uraraka, and Yaomomo, and it fluttered around the rest of class before the Pussy Cats even had a chance to do their little dance. River stepped up by Uraraka, propping her elbow on her shoulder while Midoriya geeked out and almost got himself skewered.

"What a nerd," she said fondly.

Uraraka turned an interesting pink and nodded her agreement. River had to wonder if he'd thought much on her own quirk. She'd ask him another time.

River liked the uniforms they wore, it reminded her of Tokyo Mew Mew. Mischief sparked in Pixie Bob's eyes. She slammed her hands into the ground.

"BAM!" River shouted. As one the rest of her class, who'd been waiting for the signal, jumped into the air. River slapped a layer of her power between them and the roiling ground that would have sent them flying into the forest bellow.

Pixie Bob, Mandalay, and Aizawa stared at her blankly, mouths open.

River flashed them a peace sign.

"You're getting predictable, teach!"

Aizawa narrowed his eyes at her. A paranormal glow simmered under the surface. Like a vampire.

" _River_."

River made a face. "You're boring. Fine, fine. C'mon y'all," she waved at her friends and started towards the forest. She walked down a staircase of her own invention, watching unimpressed when Mineta missed a step and went rolling down, screaming.

"How's you know that would happen?" Midoriya asked, walking at her side.

"Wasn't it obvious?" River glanced over at him, "Aizawa loves fucking around with us. And Pixie Bob's quirk is earth manipulation. "

"Still," Midoriya insisted. "That was incredible!"

River laughed, scratching the back of her neck. "Yeah? Thanks." She stepped off the last platform and onto the ground. She waited until the rest of her class, who teetered with less certainty across a stair case they couldn't see, after her. Once everyone was on the ground, It happened.

"Man, we're so far down. Couldn't you have made a slide?" Mina asked, tossing a friendly arm around River's shoulders. River wrapped her arm around Mina's middle, shrugging helplessly.

"I guess? Probably. Maybe next time."

"You think there'll be a next time?" Kaminari asking, coming up on her other side. River linked arms with him.

"Oh yeah. Hey, we should come up with like, a code word for you too. That move that you did with Yaomomo during the USJ? With the insulation and your quirk? We should have a code word and then we can use it and no one else will know what's going on, except people in our class."

"yeah! That'd be so cool, a code for my own special move! What do you think of-"

A loud roar cut off all conversation as the eyes of the class shifted to the treeline. A gigantic brown beast let out a roar and everyone save River froze for a moment in panic. It was massive, hulking, and one of the coolest things River had ever seen in her life. Eyeless, with sharp teeth made of stone stronger than the dirt the moved to make the majority of it's body. It moved like a gorilla, roaring and charging at her class.

River watched her classmates move in tandem to take it down, giving their all.

Another one lumbered out of the shadows, shaped more like a lizard.

River cocked her head to the side. The beat fell to the ground in perfect cubes of dirt that shattered on impact with the ground proper. This was a little pointless for her, but it was all fun and she got to hang out with her classmates.

River ended up taking off her obnoxious red sneakers and carrying them the rest of the way to the camp, letting her feet sink into the soft earth, churned and clean in a way that cities weren't. River would always be a city kitty at heart, she hated small towns passionately, but being out? Away from other people? In clean are, and nature? It soothed a strange part of her heart.

"Taro took me camping once," She told Bakugou conversationally. He spared her a glance in the brief time they had before attacks. "I was still sure I was gonna starve to death. I used to horde canned food, mandarin oranges mostly. Did you know I had scurvy when he found me?"

"Uh. No."

"Yeah. It took years before I actually trusted that he wouldn't let me starve. He had to teach me how to get my own food, no matter where we were, until I stopped acting like a fuckin squirrel."

Bakugou narrowed his eyes at her.

"Everytime you open your mouth your life gets sadder, Curly Top."

River shrugged. "So? All the best heroes have tragic backstories, right?" she winked at him. He took a swipe at her head and she ran off, laughing.

She could have gotten them to the camp in about an hour, but they needed the training. She watched their backs, holding defensive line while everyone else did offense. By the time they stumbled out of the trees, to the camp, no one had so much as a bruise on their person but they were all exhausted. Even River was starting to get a head ache from keeping her attention separated in so many directions. She needed to work on that. Maybe that would be what she did at camp?

"Hey teach," River waved at Aizawa, who was waiting for them at the front door of the camp facility. "It's been a minute."

"Longer than a minute!" Kaminari leaned against her, exhausted. "You said it would only take a few hours!"

"Sorry," Mandalay smiled sheepishly at them, "I guess we timed it based on how long it would take us."

That was putting it mildly. It was nearing dark and the only one who wasn't dead on their feet was River.

"How are you still standing?" Mineta whined, trying to cling to her leg. River kicked him straight in the face. She nearly gagged. Who even let this kid in?

"I've spent like, most of my life doing shit like this. Not in the woods, and usually with people _actually_ trying to kill me," she said dryly. Mineta looked up at her.

"Wait, what?"

She didn't offer him an other explanation. Just grabbed Kaminari and marched his poor, loopy butt into the building with the rest of the kids.


	38. Not So Happy Campers

River woke up the next morning with Mina's arm sprawled across her stomach.

All of the girls of 1-A had been given a room to set up in, while the boys were across the hall from them. 1-B was next to them, to the right. River the first person awake, and after carefully untangling herself from Mina River snuck out of the room. She navigated the small compound that the Pussy Cat's ran in their little mountain retreat. It had a bath house, a hospital room, and an office, not to mention the rooms that they were sleeping in. It reminded her a bit of Wizardry, and she had to wonder if all rescue heroes had a place like this. Probably. This job was enough to make anyone paranoid as all fuck.

River stepped out into the morning light, breathing in the mist that sat low in the mountain valley's. She hummed softly.

"I feel like a bird floating through the sky just a little bit. I feel like a bird floating through the sky just a little bit. Oh don't take me down to the valley tonight, don't take me down to the river 'cause I get lost, oh so lost."

"Do you always sing?"

River looked over her shoulder to find Kota standing in the doorway, glaring at her harshly. River smiled.

"My dad was a musician. He taught me how to sing, and play the piano."

Kota stiffened at the mention of a dad. River's smile softened.

"I know it hurts," she told him softly.

"What do you know?" Kota snapped.

"My dad's gone too," she said, quietly. Kota stiffened. River sat on the ground, motioning the boy closer to her. He came, reluctantly.

"I know how it hurts. You thought they'd always be there. That they'd always protect you. And then one day they're just. Gone. Just a minute, and everything different. You can never go back to them. And you'll never hear their voice, or feel their hugs, or get them so mad their whole face turns red."

Kota wrapped his arms around his knees. The sky turned pink, yellow streaking through it. Kota bowed his head, his hat obscuring his face.

"You're all idiots. You'll all get killed, just like my mom and dad."

"Mmmm, maybe. But for almost everyone here, becoming a hero, following their dreams, is as essencial as breathing. Without it, they'd be dead anyways."

"That's stupid!" Kota's shoulders started shaking. River hummed softly.

"Even if its stupid, that's how it is. You aunt knows this. Your parents did too."

"Shut up about my parents!"

River didn't respond when he lashed out at her, turned his vicious glare onto her.

She leaned her head back against the wall.

"If you were with me now, I'd find myself in you. If you were with me now… you're the only one who knew, all the things were planned to do. I want to live my life the way you said I would. With courage as my light, fighting for what's right, like you made me believe I could…"

Kota didn't leave as the lyrics fell softly from her lips. By the time she stood again, everyone else was starting to filter out of class 1-A. They got together and made breakfast in sleepy quiet, rice and fish, and River managed to scrounge up some blueberries for muffins.

Everyone else was finally starting to wake up and shake off yesterdays exhaustion by the time Mandalay lead them into the woods, to a training area set up already. Aizawa stood in the middle of a batch of simingly miscellaneous pile of junk. There was a spark in his eyes that River didn't like.

"Good morning, class. Today we begin the training camp that will increase your strength. Our goal is to increase your skills exponentially so that each of you earns a provisional licence. This will allow you to face the dangers that continue to fester in the darkness. Proceed carefully. Look alive, Bakugo." Aizawa threw the boy a training ball and told him to throw it.

"No one blink," he snarked, his grin cocky. "Go to hell! " Bakugo screamed and threw the ball.

"That was 709.6 meters." Aizawa said. Hardly any change at all.

"You've had a single semester at UA, and due to your various experiences all of you have definitely improved. _But_ those improvements have mostly been limited to mental prowess and technical skill, with a slight increase in stamina thrown in along the way. As you can see your quirks have not improved much on a fundamental level. That's why we're now going to focus on trying to improve your power."

He smiled like a maniac. "This will be so hard you feel like you're dying. Let's hope you all survive."

After his little speech everyone split off for their various horrible torture. Boiling water, freezing water, throwing tape of a mountain, sitting in caves. Speed eating. Then, finally, they came to River and Midoriya.

"What's the plan Teach?" River asked, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her basketball shorts. The pink of her sports bra barely poked out of her blue tank top.

"Midoriya, you're going to attack River. River, you're going to show him how to fight properly, without relying only on his quirk. From time to time, I'm going to throw these at you."

He produced a bucket of ping pong balls. Some had red x's on them, some had blue lines.

"The red ones you'll cat in individual boxes and hold until I tell you to stop. The blue ones you's cut exactly in half and catch both halfs in their own respective boxes. How many boxes can you maintain at one time?"

"At the strart of the year I could hold twelve of the robots still in the entrance exam, and still bring up more if I absolutely needed to. Since then I can probably hold about thirty, since I've got some practice in. Is this revenge for me punching you in the back of the head?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Aizawa sad, his voice too flat for her to tell if it was sarcasm, "this is for your own good."

"Wait, when did you hit him?" Midoriya asked, swinging to look at her.

"Huh? Oh, I had to retake the final exam after that whole kidnapping debacle," she waved her hand flippantly. "And, just so you know, I'm gonna hurt you a lot today."

Midoriya paled. "O-oh."

"When class B get's here, you'll do the same with their strength quirk users as well. Don't kill anyone."

River squaked, offended, while Aizawa walked away to see how Kirishima was doing with Ojiro.

"So, Midoriya," River turned to him. "Have you ever had actual training in fighting?"

He shook his head. "Not really. I took a few karate classes when I was younger, but besides that it's always been just me doing what I could in the moment. Like with," he paused, lowering his voice, "Stain."

"Mhmm. You guys probably could have handled him without me," she mused. "You and Todoroki are probably two of the top three students, as far as combat goes. Plus Bakugou, I mean."

Midoriya gave her a funny look. "But, you could beat all of us. You beat Aizawa in direct combat. Don't you think that makes you in the top three?"

River paused. _Huh_. She hadn't even thought of that. She knew she was the most dangerous person in class, easily, but for some reason it had never occurred to her to include herself in ranking of strongest to weakest.

"Yeah. I guess, I dunno. It's weird for me to consider myself a part of the class sometimes."

She shook her head before Midoriya could question her about that. "Anyhow. Come at me bro."

"Right!"

He lunged at her, sparking pale green as he darted forwards. River dodged him. Tapping the back of his head on his way past.

"That can knock someone out," she told him helpfully. "Back of the head, most parts of of the neck, and the chin and jaw are weak points. Always hit them if you can. Right here," she tapped her neck, a little dowards, "Is a really big nerve. Even if you don't knock someone out, hit them there and they'll probably collapse."

Midoriya nodded sharply and shot forwards again. River danced around him, light on her feet. She kept tapping him, telling him what would happen if she had hit for real. She could see his brain filing all the information away for later. Good. He needed it.

True to Aizawa's words when 1-B showed up a couple of their kids joined her. She knocked them away, blocked and scolded and got soo caught up keeping track of them that she almost missed the first ping pong ball flying towards her.

Her head snapped to the side. A flicker of red. She caught it. Two more, one red, one blue. Four cubes altogether and she still stepped back from Kendo and kicked her in the ribs.

"Again," she ordered, watching the girl rise slowly. She could hear an echo of Taro in her voice.

 _"_ _Again. Come on, I know you're better than that. If you keep holding back because you think you're going to hurt me, I'll have to get rougher. Again, Riv."_

Kendo rose on legs that shook and turned burning eyes onto River, who cracked a smile.

"Good girl," she nodded at her. Caught Midoriya's fist and threw him over her hip and into a tree. They were so easy to beat, but every time she told them to do something differently they changed it up, and did as she asked.

Aizawa added more and more balls every few hours, until she was up to thirty three and her head was threatening to break open. It got to the point that she was fighting on instinct alone and only focused on maintaining the barriers.

Her upper lip felt wet.

' _That's enough everyone!_ ' Mandalay's voice echoed into her head, increasing the pain. ' _Meet back at the camp to start dinner.'_

River finally let the ping pong balls drop to the ground.

"Your nose is bleeding," Midoriya realized. River touched her upper lip, pulling away her fingers to see them dripped in red. "Does that normally happen?"

"Not really… Weird," she shrugged, careless.

Midoriya watched her with a good deal of concern as she lead the way back to camp, whistling cheerfully to herself even thought her head felt like she'd been kicked by a horse. Or a pony. Wasn't there a pony girl here somewhere?

Or, she had horns, didn't she?

River ended up bumping into Todoroki on her way back to camp. He looked like a mess. His red-white hair was in a state of disarray, and mis-matched eyes were bleary and tired. River took his arm in hers, letting him lean on her.

"You look like you've had a rough start," she teased.

He shot a glance at the red smeared across her face. "Am I the only one?"

"Nah," she admitted, a tad sheepish. "Hey, after dinner, do you wanna watch a movie with me?"

"A movie?" he repeated. River patted her pocket, where he phone was. "Yeah. I can put on subtitles, and then you can practice your English too. Or, there might be a Japanese dub. I'm not sure."

Todoroki mulled her words over before he nodded at last.

River cheered, earning a glare from her classmates.

"How is she still so energetic?" Kirishima whined.

"Because she's the devil," Bakugou answered without missing a beat. Curry was good. River had never made it before, but getting together with her classmates and trying to go through all the steps had been great. She'd even gotten into a contest with Bakugou over who could chop vegitables faster, the genius or the not-a-gun-girl. Midoriya had gone off with a bowl of curry after Kota.

After everyone was full they had a bit of free time amongst themselves, and it was then that River and Todoroki found a place inside to sit side by side. He didn't push River away when she leaned against his side, and accepted one of the earbuds that she'd offered him. She sat on his left side this time, soaking up his natural warmth.

Once they were set, she scrolled through her downloaded movies until she got to the ones with dubs.

"Ready?" She asked, waiting for him to nod. She hid play.

 _Once upon a time, in a far off kingdom, there lay a village at the edge of the woods. And in this village there_


	39. Kanye Avacados

The next day went much the same as the first. River woke before everyone else and sat outside, singing whatever came to her mind. Eventually Kota came and sat beside her, his arms wrapped around his knees.

She almost missed it when he spoke.

"Does it ever stop hurting?"

River closed her eyes and leaned her head back.

"Not really. The pain dulls, and fades… It's like any other injury. When you scrape your knee it hurts a lot at first, but it scabs over eventually. Sometimes the scab gets ripped off and you're hurt all over again, and sometimes you'll go a long time without it hurting. It might even seem like it's totally healed, but there's still scar tissue in there. You step wrong one day and it's just as bad as the day it happened, or you bump your knee on something and it tingles but it's not so bad. Going to doctors can help, sometimes."

"You're gonna die if you go and become a hero," Kota told her.

River smiled. "Maybe."

Other people started filing out of the building and again, River left Kota behind. He was a cute kid, even if he was angry all the time. Angry and hurt, River understood that well. And she knew that he would heal as well, in time.

River caught Todoroki by the arm when he came out of the building, smiling brightly at him.

"Good morning!" she sang cheerfully. Kirishima, who'd come out behind him, grimaced.

"Baku-bro's right. You are the devil."

"And you're rude," River retorted, tripping him up with a barrier.

"Hey!"

River laughed and spun away from them, her skirt spinning around her legs. The spandex shorts underneath ensured she could train and still look cute.

Mina bounced up behind her, throwing her arms around River, who picked her up and spun her around.

"Queenie! How were you extra classes?" River asked, holding Mina easily off the ground. Mina wrapped her legs around her, letting River carry her to to the food prep area. Iida, Midoriya, and Bakugou came out with the rest of the extra class kids.

"They sucked!" she cried, leaning her head on River's. "It was so boring, I wanted to jump out a window."

"Poor baby," River teased, flicking one of her horns. Mina whined, letting her go and pouting.

"Meanie!"

"Dude, are you that surprised?" River grinned at her and took a place next to Bakugou while Todoroki got the fire started.

"Hey, you know what?" Mina poked River's arm. "You've had a lot of Japanese food, but we've never had real American food!"

"You ate a burger last week," River argued. "We went to MgRonalds, remember?"

"Yeah, but that's not _authentic_ ," Mina argued.

"What do american's even eat?" Bakugou asked. Something about the way he said it sounded rude.

"I dunno, it depends on where you go. My dad liked shrimp and grits, but I like carne adovada better. Waffles are always popular, they go good with fried chicken."

"What's 'kanye avacado'?" Kirishima's face scrunched up.

River snickered. "Carne Adovada," she corrected. "It's pork in chili sauce. You cook it in a stock pot for about eight or ten hours and eat it with tortillas or sometimes rice. "

"It sounds awesome!" Mina cheered. "You should make it!"

"It won't be as good without actual new mexico chili's…" River frowned, "But. I guess I can make due with what we have here. We can leave it on while we're training, and then food will be ready when we're done."

"That sounds awesome," Kirishima grinned, "I thought I was gonna die trying to make curry yesterday."

"Alright. Bakugou, gimme a hand?"

Bakugou grunted at her, but agreed. The two of them marched inside, where the pantry was, and loaded up a couple of boxes. Pork butt, vinegar, fish sauce, chicken broth, vegitable oil, onions, garlic, cumin, bay leaves, oregano.

River grinned hugely. "Goddamn, they actually have some good peppers here!" she piled as many into the box as she could fit. Pasilla, ancho, bell pepers, and a few chilli's too. And orange juice.

"You're obsessed with food," Katsuki accused her.

"Dude, food is the shit. If I don't eat I'll die. Literally and figuratively."

She led the way outside and they got to work. She left Bakugou chopping the meat into chunks while she herself started the chilis in a stock pot. If they were going to feed everyone, they'd need more than usual. Enough for about thirty half starved teenagers total. She cooked the chilies first, stirring them around for a few minutes until they smelled just right before she poured in the broth, orange juice, vinegar, and fish sauce. It would have been better with adobo, but she couldn't have everything.

Once the peppers were softened enough she poured it all into a blender, repeating that with a few different pots of chillies. While the sauce sat in the blenders she had Katsuki cook the pork for a few minutes in the garlic and onions, tossing in salt and cumin.

She was humming the whole time.

 _Baby I love you, you know it's true, and I can make you happy if you love me too!_

Once the meat was ready she poured the sauce back in, turned down the heat, and covered the pots. Aizawa gave them a few minutes to get water every couple of hours, she would check on the food then and make sure it was hot enough. Too bad she didn't have a crock pot, or an electric stove.

"And now. We wait."

* * *

Training was much the same as the day before. River managed to get to forty blocks this time, but her nose still bled, and Midoriya almost landed a hit on her this time.

River ended up swinging her arm around him, making the poor boy squeak.

"You're getting better every day! Like some weird genius," she praised, watching his whole face turn bright red.

He stuttered out something that River didn't even remotely understand until she let him go to skip next to Kendo, who looked ready to keel over. She'd really stepped up together.

"So," River drawled, "Are you gonna 'beat class 1-A into the ground' or what?"

Kendo made a face as her bad Monoma impression.

"I'm sorry he's so crazy…"

"It's fine, I think it's hilarious," River admitted. "He's totally nuts."

"Yeah," Kendo looked exhasperated. "He really is."

River nudged her lightly. "Why don't you eat with me and the others tonight? We should have dinner ready by the time we get back. We just need to make rice."

"Seriously?" Kendo perked up.

"Yep," River popped the 'p' cheerfully. "We made enough for everyone this morning. "

"Wow, thanks," Kendo smiled sweetly at her. River had to fight not pinch her cheeks. The girl was cute!

"Don't mention it."

When they got back to the facilities River could smell the carne adovada. She checked all the pots. The meet was tender, fall apart with a spoon, and the sauce was nice was full of flavor. Not too hot, but not mild either. Todoroki started yet more fires and they cooked the rice quickly, since they didn't' have tortilla's.

River piled Kendo's plate high with food when she was interrupted by a delighted cry behind her.

"Carne Adovada!"

She turned around to see a short girl was long horns bouncing around on her hooves. Ponygirl, or something. She held a plate in front of her, blue eyes wide with wonder. Tokoyami pointed her towards River, who waved cheerfully.

"I gotcha girl!" she called in english. She got to see Ponygirl's eyes get all wide before she grinned hugely and came running over. Kendo laughed.

"She's normally more shy," she mused. River nudged her along and gestured for Ponygirl to come along to one of the tables, where Jirou was half asleep against Yaomomo's shoulder.

All of the girls sat together, with Ponygirl in the middle of River and Kendo.

"I knew there was another girl here from america, but no one told me it was you," Ponygirl spoke quickly, if quietly, her English accented heavily with a long drawl. River tried to place it.

"Yeah, that's me. Sorry I never got around to introducing myself to you. Your class is always so… busy." And Monoma seemed like he would fight her if she tried to talk to anyone in the class half the time.

"I guess that's one way to put it. Where are you from?"

"Huh? Originally Oklahoma, but I've lived everywhere. Cali, New Mexico, and New York City most recently. My dad moved us around a lot. What about you? Somewhere down south?" she guessed.

"Kentucky," she confirmed with a nod. "Have you been there?"

"Once. We rented a cabin out by Kentucky lake. There were so many cicadas! It seriously weirded me out. I coulnt' see the bark on the trees!"

Ponygirl laughed at her. "Your names River right?"

"River Quinton," she confrmed. "And you're ponygirl?"

"Ah, just Pony. Pony Tsunotori."

"Okay, rude question," River announced. "Are you like, part Japanese then?"

Pony nodded. "My dad was, he taught me most of the Japanese I know. I'm staying with his brother while I go to school. What about you?"

"I'm about as white as white get's," she joked. "I'm only here because someone owed me a favor and got me into the entrance exam."

While they talked both of the girls ate quickly. River got to see Jiro's face turn a soft sort of red as she tried to get the pork down. Maybe she should have made it milder…

Oh well.

"Tsunotori! Kendo! Why are you eating with the enemy!"

All of them looked over to see Monoma standing at the end of the table, looking down at them in horror.

"Because the 'enemy' had food ready for us," Kendo told him blandly. "Stop being weird and eat something, Monoma."

"No!" he shook his head. "I won't let those 1-A losers show us up in survival and cooking! I can make my own dinner without their charity!"

River shrugged. "You do you babe," she said carelessly, and went back to eating while he flipped his lid. The guy was insane! No one had been looking for a class rivalry until he started up, like a lunatic.

It was a nice night. And then came the test of courage.

The remedial classes had to stay behind and take their extra lessons, leaving the rest of them at the mercy of class B and the Pussycats. They explained quickly what the point was. B would scare A, A had to go in there and get their name cards from Ragdoll, and come back out without peeing themselves. River was practically bouncing with excitement. She'd never gotten to go to haunted corn mazes or anything like that when she was a teenager. This was going to be fun, and since Bakugou hadn't taken first place in the sports festival, they shouldn't be under attack this time around.

River stood next to her partner for the exersize, Midoriya.

The drawings really had been random. Group 1 was made of River and Midoriya. Group 2, Bakugou and Ururaka, 3 Tokoyami and Ojirou, 4 Hagakure and Tsu, 5 Yaomomo and Todoroki, 6 Jiro and Aoyama, 7 Mineta and Iida, and Shoji was left all alone, with only his tenta-arms for company.

River and Midoriya were first up.

"This is gonna be awesome," River told him, grabbing his hand. He turned bright pink. "We're gonna be scared shitless and at the end I get to see a pretty lady!"

"Pretty lady?" he repeated. "You mean Ragdoll?"

"Yes! This whole team is full of pretty ladies, and one super beefcake," she said solemnly. Midoriya shot her a very weird look.

"Aren't you only fifteen?"

"Huh? Nah, I'm the oldest person in class," she shrugged. She didn't have time to work out the morality of immortal flirting right now though. They were going to have fun!

"Let's go!" she dragged him into the darkness with a cheer.

Midoriya stumbled, trying to keep up with her as they crept through the woods. River didn't made a sound as they moved, and her footsteps never faltered. She didn't stumble over the pathway at all, even when the bug looking guy from class B popped out of the bushed, screaming at them.

River shrieked with laughter. She'd heard him coming a mile away, but this was fun and harmless. Midoriya clung to her arm, putting himself between her and the 'danger'. What a cute kid.

They continued on, creeping through the darkness.

"How can you see?" Midoriya asked. The moonlight barely filtered through the trees.

"Huh? I dunno, I'm just used to the dark. And I don't necessarily need to see to know whats around me."

"How do you mean?" he asked. River cocked her head. There weren't any other people hanging around, so they had time to talk before they came across the next pair of scarers.

"I mean I use my other senses just as much as my eyes. I can feel the way the wind moves through the trees, and over the ground. I can feel the way the earth dips and rises around my feet. I can smell other people shampoo, cologne, and their natural scent. You, for instance, use New Spice, and you smell kinda like bamboo and moss."

"Bamboo and moss…" he repeated dubiously.

"Mhmm. I can hear owls, and bats in the trees, and insects in the grass. I can hear you breathing, and the two B students up ahead. If I listen hard enough, I can even hear the electricity inside of them, their pulses, and feel the way they displace the space around them."

Midoriya stared up at her, his mouth half open. "That's- that's amazing! Can you teach me how to do that?"

"I mean, I can, but it'll take years to get it right, and you're gonna be a flashy hero, like All Might right?"

He nodded.

"Then you probably won't need to know it. But I guess it can never hurt. We'll start once we're done with camp, okay?"

"Yeah! Thanks so much, I really apriciate-"

He was cut off when the darker-than-black kid erupted from the underbrush, snarling like something out of a nightmare. Midoriya screamed his head off while River reached over and patter the boys pale hair. It was as fluffy as it looked.

"You smell like charcoal," she told him blandly. He stared her, bewildered and a little creeped out.

She and Midoriya walked on, until they finally reached Ragdolls little booth. There were candles set up to read by, and name cards spread across it.

"Congrats! You kittens are the first to make it here!" she cheered, throwing her hands in the air. "I wasn't expecting you to get here so early! Pick up your name cards and head on back to the start point."

"Right!" Midoriya rushed to find him, searching through all the names. Rivers was easy enough. It was the only one without any kanji attached to it. She looked up when she realized Ragdoll was staring.

"Uh, something I can help you with?"

"Maybe," Ragdoll knocked the side of her head. "My quirk says that neither of you have a quirk."

They both stiffened. River looked at Midoriya, who looked between them like a deer in the headlights.

"My quirk isn't really a quirk," River told her carefully. "It was given to me by my dad, and he got it from his boyfriend. So maybe that's why," she suggested.

"That shouldn't be possible," Ragdoll told her. Before she could say more, though, a strange mist rolled in. River sniffed the air. Smoke, and something else. Something foul and sour. Gas.

But, Bakugou had lost.

Why were they here?


	40. I See Fire Inside the Mountain

"You guys need to go," River said urgently. "Find Mandalay and tell her what's going on. The gas won't hurt me, but you're both vulnerable."

Ragdoll shook her head quickly. "No way! You're one of our kittens, I'm not leaving you here alone!"

"Think about it," River inssited. "You know where all of us are, even Yaomomo right? Yaoyarozu?"

Ragdoll nodded.

"If you can find her, she can make gasmasks. Then you can get those to everyone else and regroup and- What about Kota? Where's he?"

"Kota? He's up on the mountain I think. He's- shit, he's all alone!" she realized.

"Right. You guys go for Yaomomo, I'll hold this guy here."

"What guy?" Midoriya asked, right as a nightmare emerged from the trees. Hulking, grotesque, his brain exposed through the purple in his helmet. A gage was braced between his teeth. Teal green skin stretched across bulging muscles.

"That guy," River said simply.

"He's strong," Ragdoll paled.

"I'll be fine," River assured her. He could cut her in half and she would still be able to walk away. "He's not the first Nomu we've faced."

"You can't take him on all by yourself!" Midoriya argued. River looked at him sharply.

"Do you remember what happened the last time I told you to run, Midoriya?"

He faltered, his conflict fading. River looked at Ragdoll.

"Even if you can't see my quirk, you have to believe me. I can take care of this guy. The other's need you more now than I do."

Ragdoll looked at her, her wide eyes narrowed in worry until she finally nodded. The Nomu took a swing at them, a chainsaw sprouting from its shoulder to try and cut her in half. River blocked it with barely a thought.

"I believe you. Just be careful," Ragdoll ordered. She nudged Midoriya. "We need to run, how fast can you go?"

"I don't know, I've never timed myself before…"

"Run back to the others as fast as you can, tell Mandalay what's going on. I'll find Yaoyorozu. River, can you stop the gas?"

River shook her head. "No. I might not be hurt by it, but air and sound can get through my barriers. Sorry."

While they talked River kept blocking the Nomu, over and over again. It had six arms it was trying to kill her with and none of them would make contact with her. River let them drop all at once and jumped up, punching the Nomu straight in the squishy brain.

It screamed and collapsed, limp and silent. For good measure River cut all of its tendons she could. The gas was getting thicker, and along with it the acrid smell of wood smoke. It was enough to make River a little light headed every couple of minutes.

She walked into the woods, following the smoke. Kendo and Tetsutetsu could handle mustard, and she'd already stopped the Nomu. She stepped out of the roiling mist of gas and into a cloud of smoke. A scream drew her from her path. River picked up her pace into a run, sprinting through the forest until she came upon a sorry sight.

Ojirou, laying on the ground with his tail nearly cut in two, and Tokoyami screaming as he fought Dark Shadow.

"Oh. Shit." She was completely unrepared for this.

"River!" Ojirou shouted. "You have to trap him! Now!"

"Yeah uh. I can't do that," she grimaced.

"What do you mean?" Ojirou demanded.

"He's my friend. So, my quirk doesn't work on him."

" _What_?!"

"Those the rules, man, I don't know!" she waved her hand around frantically. "Where's Bakugou and Todoroki when I need them?" she groaned.

"Could you freak out a little bit more?" Ojirou asked, "Tokoyami's lost control of Dark Shadow."

"Yeah, no shit," she snapped. "What do you want me to do about it? I'm not gonna hurt them! I'd rather die!"

"You just might!"

"I will not," River shook her head. "They won't kill me." She said firmly. "Can you stand?"

Ojirou struggled to his feet. River have him a hand.

"Go out, find Bakugou or Todoroki. I'll stay with Tokoyami."

"No!" Tokoyami shouted at her, "You have to get out of here!"

"Would you shut up?" River propped her hand on her hips. "You and Dark Shadow are both my friends. I'm not leaving you. 'It's better to walk in the darkness with a friend than stand alone in the light', right?"

"That doesn't count here!"

"I swear to fuck- Ojirou, just get someone who start a fire, would you? Why is no one here photokenetic? What's wrong with this place?"

Ojirou still hesitated, but something she said must have gotten through to him because he did as she asked and ran off into the night. River watched him go, his bloody tail waving like a gruesome flag behind him.

"Oh my loves," River said mournfully, turning back to them.

"You need. To run," Tokoyami insisted. She could see his face screwed up in pain and concentration, guilt and fear warring in his gaze.

"I told you I'm not," she said again. She stepped forwards. Dark Shadow lashed out at her, but she slipped easily away from him, running gentle fingers along his side. "Hush, love. The sun is gone, and now we stand, unalone in the darkness."

"Who said that?" Tokoyami asked, his voice rough. Dark Shadow circled her like a viper waiting to lash out.

"I did," she said lightly. Dark Shadow swiped at her ribs, and she caught his hand, holding it away from her. "I told you to hush. What's got you so worked up?"

"I can't control him like this. River, you have to go."

"Are you hard of hearing?" she asked, "Relax, Tokoyami. You're freaking out, and it's not helping anything. If anything, it's making things worse. You've seen me fight. You know I'll be fine."

"You said your quirk doesn't work on us!"

"I know. But I was dangerous before I had my quirk, love. Just truth me, okay? Can you do that?" She reached through the darkness, grasping Tokoyami's hand. She didn't need to see Dark Shadow to know to spin out of his way. He shrieked and twisted like a cork screw out, turning his back to her.

River took a breath.

He turned around to attack but found nothing. He couldn't see her, and she said not a word to give herself away. The only way Tokoyami knew she was there was the soothing circles she rubbed across his knuckles. Everytime Dark Shadow moved like he might bump her she avoided him, managing to keep holding Tokoyami's hand while dodging the other part of him that might just stab her and stick.

Finally, a shout echoed through the woods, followed by a familiar crackle. River breathed a sight of relief.

"Thank god."

Her relief was short lived. Madalay's voice cut into her head.

' _Students of classes 1-A and 1-B, in the name of the pro hero Eraser Head, you are permitted to use your quirks to protect yourself! On top of that, the villains are targeting one student in particular. River, wherever you are, avoid fighting and get to safety!'_

"What. The. _Fuck_."

Dark Shadow shot at her. River flipped across his shoulder. Rolling over his back and landing on her feet. Okay. Plans were changing, she needed to do something stupid, and she hated dragging Tokoyami into it, but this was what she had.

"Tokoyami! I need you to trust me, okay?"

He looked at her. For a beat there was silence, just, the two of them, before he nodded at her once. She turned on her heel and bolted into the forest. Bakugou wouldn't get there in time to tame Dark Shadow, and she needed him on his side. More than that, she needed someone else to be a part of this.

Knowing Midoriya he would be on his way to try and get to her now. The dumb kid.

They didn't have time to wait for him. She ran into the wall of smoke.

Further in it turned into fire, blue and beautiful for all its distruction. As they cleared the smoke that covered the moon and burst into a line of fire Dark Shadow shrunk with an inhuman wail, shriveling into Tokoyami's stomach.

River was left out of breath, smiling at him.

"Told you to trust me," she said brightly.

"You're insane," Tokoyami told her. He stepped forwards and yanked her into a hug. River laughed softly and hugged him back.

"Yeah, definitely. But I'm your friend, right?"

"Yes," Tokoyami rested his beak on her shoulder. "Yes, you are."

River smile to herself.

From in the smoke Bakugou and Uraraka came hurtling, followed by Ojirou, a very fucked up Midoriya, and some weirdo in a straight jacket with metal teeth.

"Yo," River flashed them a peace sign.

"Talk later, stop that guy now!" Ojirou shouted.

River shrugged. "Sure," she said casually. She looked up at the weirdo, who's name she hadn't bothered to know, and waved her hand at him casually. He screamed and went pummeling into the ground when she cut all of his teeth out, along with parts of his cheeks. He was left with some horrifying gasglow smile.

"You're such a bullshit person," Katsuki told her blandly. "I couldn't hit him right or I might 'start a bigger fire Kacchan'," he mocked, shooting Midoriya a glower. Midoriya looked much less horrible upon second observation. He'd definitely broken some bones, but he wasn't a zombie hopped up on adrenaline this time. Good. He'd learned something.

"Yeah, I know. Hey, Uararaka, why didn't you just float him and Bakugou above the tree lines so he could hit him? Bakugou can monuver midair."

Uraraka froze. Bakugou stiffened.

"Oh. You just didn't think of it."

"Shut up!"

"Don't be rude, firecracker, just because you didn't think to do that first."

"This is what I get for coming to save your ass?"

"Uh, excuse me? Who saved who?" she pointed to the villain on the ground.

"Guys, is this really the best time fore this?" Ojirou asked.

River huffed. "Fine, fine. We'll argue later. For now, let's get back to camp."

Fuck, she missed being able to just yell shit at people and have them know exactly what to do. With Gen and Jess all she'd needed to say was 'you're the sheepdog!' or 'Rabit hole, lemming variant!' and they already knew the plan. Maybe she should work on more plays with her classmates.

"You should walk in the middle of the rest of us," Midoriya said, "That way we can guard you from all sides."

"Midoriya. Babe. You're not fit to guard anyone. And honestly, I'm probably the best person here suited to outright fighting. If they can get past me, they'll definitely get past the rest of you."

"You don't have to say it like that…"

"I'm sorry, infinity, it's just the truth. But fine, if you'll better that way, we'll go in a circle. Ojirou, Midoriya, you're injured, both of you. Uraraka, can you float them back to camp?"

"I can try," she said quickly.

"Hey! I'm fine!" Midoriya argued. River's sharp look silenced him.

"Your bones are broken. If you keep breaking them, you won't be able to heal anymore. You'll end up crippled before you even had your liscence." Her gaze softened. "You don't have to do everything by yourself, Midoriya. We, well, most of us," she nodded to Bakugou, "Are your friends. We're not gonna let you keep getting hurt, and we're gonna help you with whatever burden you've given yourself. So let yourself rest, okay? I promise there'll be more fighting later."

Midoriya looked at her before bowing his head, nodding once.

Uraraka touched both him and Ojirou, and she and Tokoyami each pulled the pair along, one by his arms, the other by his belt.

"Dumb kids," River said fondly. "Too damn heroic."

"You're one to talk," Katsuki shoved her roughly forwards. "You're the one that keeps trying to protect everyone.

River coudlnt' say why that made her smile so wide. Her heart beat a little easier.

* * *

They were definitely going the wrong way. Or, the right way, but it was leading them through the fire. River could keep the flames themselves away, but the smoke and the heat got through. They stayed low, shirts covering mouths, and walked into the woods. There were people up ahead, River realized. Two of them.

She lifted her head.

"If I smell like cigarettes after this, I'm gonna pissed!"

The blue fire shivered like it was a living thing, pealing away from itself piece by piece until it revealed a sight she was breathless to behold.

Dabi, his palm pressed flat to one tree, stood in a halo of blue fire. His eyes burned with a pssion she'd only seen once in them before, and his twisted smile seemed somehow more genuine. Twice stood at his side, struck in a rather lame pose that was almost enough to make River laugh.

River bumped Katsuki's shoulder, smacking his ass on her way back and making him jump about a foot in the air. He stared at her, wide eyed, as she stepped in front of them.

"Curly top!"

"Hey," Twice pointed at her, "There's the girl we know and love! **What, we've never met her**!"

"Ten pounds of crazy in a five pound bag," River muttered. She cleared her throat. "What do you want me for?"

"The _boss_ wants to see you," Dabi rolled his eyes at the word.

"Your boss can- Fuck. "

"You know, I doubt he does that much," Dabi drawled, but that wasn't what made River curse. It was the fact that behind him, stepped out from the shadows, was Toga in all her bubbly glory, and the kid with the gas mask. His mask was broken, hanging around his collar, so he's definitely been hit pretty hard. His whole left cheek was swollen, but there was still a cloud of gas that floated just behind him, threatening.

"You can't block heat, or gas, can you, River?" Dabi asked casually.

River grit her teeth. She couldn't. the kids power was probably mental, since he didn't need to move to use it. Which meant that just cutting him up wouldn't stop it. And she couldn't kill him outright. On top of that, her power wouldn't block Dabi or Twice at all, if they decided to come at her. Marble Man, Compression or something, came up beside them as well.

"No," she said quietly. They knew it, too.

 _Damn_.

"Come with us now, and we won't hurt any of your friends," Dabi wagered.

"River, no!" Uraraka reached for her hand. River pulled away from it.

"I'll be fine," she told them quietly. "Trust me. It'll all be okay. "

"You can't!" Midoriya tried to fight to reach her, twisting in the air.

"Izuku," she said his name softly, but with force, freezing him in place. "D'you remember what happened the last time I told you to stay out of something? To run away?"

"Hosu," he muttered.

Katsuki was staring at her, his hawk eyes wide. His hand slipped into his back pocketed but she shook her head at him, barely a twitch.

"Hosu," River confirmed. "It'll be okay," she said again, stepping away from them. Towards the villains.

Dabi hit a button on his phone and darkness swelled up, swirling a deep violet that bordered on black. Dabi grasped her back the back of her neck once she was close enough. His hand was smoldering, literally, smoking between the fingers. He'd overused his quirk. He guided her into the darkness, surrounded by smoke and the scent of her friends, and enemies.

 _It'll all be okay._


	41. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

It takes her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the new lighting. The smoke in the air is thinner here, the tables shine with polish and it smells strongely of feni, of all things, and the sweet overhang of tobacco. It's as familiar to River as her own reflection.

The hand on the back of her neck loosened, the threat gone with the rest of her friends left behind. The portal vanishes behind them, leaving River standing in a room with people she both knows and doesn't.

Joining them in the bar is Magne, all red hair and a firey grin, and Spinner, who squints at her through a half blackened eye. She doesn't know how the scales will reflect it tomorrow, besides the swelling, but she has a feeling if he can turn purple he'll have quite the sunrise come morning.

River is very intensely aware of the fact that everyone in the room is staring at her. Her eyes fix on Tomura.

"Hey. Uh. What the _actual fuck_ , bro?" She crosses the room towards him, sees Kurogiri stiffen behind the bar counter, and throws herself into the barstool next to him. She spins around, catching her ankle on the bottom of Tomura's.

She can see a brief floundering of him. She's thrown him off his rhythm.

Good.

"You're kidnapped! At least act afraid," Tomura snaps at her.

"I will absolutely not! And the kidnapping! Dude," she grabs him by his shoulders. "I was camping! I was having fun! You're such a fucking kill joy."

She hears Magne mutter to Dabi, "Is she nuts?"

Dabi snorts derisively. "Oh, she's the whole bag."

" _She_ can hear you," River shoots them a glower that's really more like a pout before looking back at Tomura. "You know you could have just invited me? You know where I live."

"Invite you to our secret base?"

"The secret base I've already broken into?" she replies dryly. Kurogiri's eyes shoot towards her, his attention intent.

"Broke into?" he repeats. River pays him very little mind.

"Yes! Or, shit, pretty much everyone in this room could have just invited me to a bar and I would have come along," she getures wildly behind her. Mustards face scrunches up.

"You've gotta be kidding."

"I'm not," she insists. "Look, I'm friends with three of the people here," she points to Dabi, Twice, and Tomura, who smacks her hand away viciously. She cuts it off at the wrist, sending ashs falling onto the floor. She pokes the regenerating bones towards the girls.

"Magne is butch, Toga is cute, and I am very much not straight. Mustards like, sorta plain but his hair looks soft, and Spinner, baby! I know you're doing like a stain cosplay, but all I can think of is Raphael, from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

"That old ass show?" he wrinkles his nose, muzzle? Looking affronted. It doesn't hide the funny pink stains on his high cheeks.

 _Adorable! How could anyone be racist to him?_

"That show was my whole childhood! Whenever my dad was out shooting people he'd leave me to watch the first three movies in the hotel room. We had one of those little tvs with the vhs player inside."

"What's a… vhs tape?" Tomura asks wearily. River shakes her head.

"You're making me feel old! C'mon, some of you must have seen them? They trime travel to like, fudal Japan and Raph, the best fuckin turtle, makes friends with like this little kid who thinks he a demon but in a good way ya know?"

They all stare at her blankly.

"Those movies are old as shit," Dabi informs her gravely.

"What? No! The first one came out when I was like, nine?"

"You were nine in 2014?" Tomura asks incredulously.

"What? No! 1990."

"What?!"

"Well, yeah," River shrugs, spinning around the barstool again. "my healing factor isn't actually a healing factor. It's chronal static regeneration. As I am now is how I'll always be, unless particular conditions are met. I don't stay hurt, I don't age, I don't die."

"But anyhow," she waves her hand flippantly, ignoring their impressive fish impressions. "Anyone but the wannabe magician could have asked me for a drink and I would have come. Sorry," she says to compress. "You're just creepy."

"Creepier than him?" Dabi pointed towards Tomura.

"Hey! Don't be mean," River slings an arm around Tomura's shoulders, dragging him down but minding Father. "He's _hands_ ome. "

"Shut the fuck up. **She's so right!"**

River gives Twice a thumbs up.

"Yup!"

Tomura shoves her off roughly. River moves with it, a leaf in the wind. She's running her mouth, she knows, and giving too much information, but she needs their guard down.

"You know that though, don't you," she addresses him once more. "I would have come. But, if I had just come like that and I dunno. Disappeared while underage drinking, it wouldn't have the same effect on the public as a group of villains attacking UA and kidnapping one of their more promising students. You want to break their faith in the school. Clever boy," she praises, smiling. "This is much more well thought out than when you just threw a bunch of thugs at us."

"If you keep being this chatty, I'll hurt you," he threatens. River shot him a smile.

"Ooooh, how scary. I'm gonna pee myself."

A pause.

"Actually, I do really need to pee."

"You're not going to jump out the bathroom window," Tomura snaps at her.

"Fine, whatever. Send Toga or Magne in with me, I don't give a fuck, but I've been out in the woods for like three days. Let me pee."

"If you'll shut up already fine!"

River snickers and looks at the pair of women. Toga waves her hand wildly in the air.

"Oh! Oh! Me!"

"Fine, whatever," Tomura rolls his eyes. River jumps off the barstool and grabs Toga's arm in hers, perfectly at ease with all these nut cases. She winks at Magne, who just smiles back at her. There's a strange comraderie between queer people that transcends interdimensional boundaries. Toga skips her to the ladies room, gushing the whole time about Izuku and how pretty he'd look covered in blood.

"You know," River drawls, "I've got his phone number. If you wanna, you know. Send a couple of selfies."

Toga's eyes light up. "Seriously! You'd do that for me?!"

"Well yeah," River shrugs. She hopes her smile is genuine, "We're friends, right?"

"Yes!" Toga latches around Rivers throat, threatening to choke her. River flails, lifting the phone out of Toga's pocket while she distracted.

"Okay okay! Get yourself ready while I go okay?"

She gives Toga a few minutes to fix her make up while she hides out in one of the stalls. The bar is like most mob run places River has been in. Imaculately clean. They also tended to have the best food ever.

While she's in the bathroom, she sends off a couple of texts, and deletes them just as soon as they've been delivered, using a couple of tricks to keep any traces from being found. By the time she exists Toga has her hair styled just so.

River quietly sets the phone on the counter, out of Toga's sight, and goes to wash her hands while the girl get's ready.

"You already look cute, girl, are you ready yet?"

"Hold on!" Toga shook her head. "I need my- Oh! My phone!"

River stands by while Toga takes selfie after selfie, going through filters, adding sparkles and blood stains until it looks like a horror movie picture. Only then does she hand the phone back to River, who inputs Midoriya's phone number.

A pounding on the door interrupts them before Magne pokes her red head in.

"Are you two about done? The boys are getting antsy."

"Yeah, we're good. Toga's just sending a picture to a boy," she elbows Toga lightly in the ribs, who blushing a brilliant red and starts gushing all over again. River leaves her behind and goes back into the main room.

It's going to be a long night.

* * *

It's been a long night.

They're all exhausted, anyone can see that, but still they cannot rest. The police have been called, parents have been called, and everyone has to sit in the class room and write down their incident reports for the night. What they saw, what they did, what they know about River and the people who took her.

Katsuki couldn't care less.

He's already snapped his pencil in half twice, practically shaking with anger. Deku's not much better. Even with his arms purple under his new bandages his legs keep bouncing, filled with nervous energy, and the little brat he'd saved looks just as panicked, sitting in the corner while the crazy cat lady talks to him about the night.

Katsuki looks over his paper, anger rising every time he has to think about what had happened all over again.

He'd had to be saved. Again. Damn it, why did it keep happening? First Deku with the sludge villain, now River with the tooth guy. And when it came time to try and save her, he hadn't done anything! He'd just stood there while she talked at Deku, and stared right at her golden eyes when she'd shaken her head at him.

He wasn't dumb. He understood what she was doing.

He pulled the cell phone out of his back pocket. Her cellphone. Plain, just a regular phone with a black case and extra glass protection. He didn't know what he'd been expecting. The only distinct thing on it is a little dog-thing charm that hangs off of. A pokemon.

He's still staring at the charm when the phone buzzes in his hand and he almost drops it outright.

 **Unknown Number: Don't text back**

 **Unknown Number: I'm safe**

 **Unknown Number: Don't try to come after me**

 **Unknown Number: I'm gonna try and get info from them**

 **Unknown Number: Said the Scorpion to the Frogs**

Katsuki stared at the texts for a good minute before he reacted, jumping to his feet.

"Aizawa!"


	42. Swept into the River

**I was drinking while I wrote this chapter so uh. I make no promises.**

* * *

This wasn't how he'd wanted it to go.

He didn't know why he'd expected her to do something normal. Like panic, or cry, or try to fight her way out of the bar. She'd never done things other people would.

At the USJ she had thrown herself at the Nomu, and even when it had completely pulverizes her ribs she had still tackled him into the water, knowing his quirk.

She kept giving him chaptstick. Everytime she saw him. Cherry, peppermint. And a coffee! He hadn't even been looking to get coffee that day, he'd just seen her and gone in after her into the shop.

She had snuck into his room, held his hands, and told him they were alike.

So of course, she didn't do what he wanted her to do. He hadn't even been able to give her his big speech about why she belonged with him- them! And now the hero wannabes.

It made his skin itch, but not in the way that it usually did. The frusteration that crawled beneath his skin wasn't like the usual march of bugs, begging to ripped out by his chipped nails. It was a different heat the chased his pulse, heating him and filling him with birds.

He didn't want to scratch his skin off to get rid of it. He wanted her to touch his hands again, and tell him he was-

"You look like you're about to puke," Dabi told him abruptly.

Tomura growled at him irritably. Why did he always have to interrupt him when he was thinking? Couldn't he seen he was busy!

"Shut up," Tomura snapped at him. Dabi's teeth was revealed when his lips curled in a wannabe smile.

"What's wrong, are you scared to talk to a girl?" he nodded towards her. Towards River, who was, for some reason, poking at Spinner's teeth and asking him questions. He didn't know why she was so interested in him. He was just a lizard!

He wasn't even a turtle.

Tomura reached for his neck, starting to scratch.

"Shut up," he said again. "I'm not afraid of her."

Why should he be?

* * *

Shouto knows that they don't want him involved in the search for River. They don't want anyone but the pros involved in the case, but he's one of the ones that was close with her so they call him in, to stand next to his old man, while they go through the texts that have come in on River's phone, slipped to Bakugou, and Midoriya's phone. Selfies of the blond girl that had been with the villains, and River standing in the background.

Aizawa stands in the front of the room, a power point projector behind him displaying the text messages. All in English, of course, but he'd translated them down below for people who weren't as good at the language. It may have been common course, but that didn't mean everyond oculd speak it.

"Obviously we know what most of these mean," Aizawa begins, "But we don't have any reason to believe that these are real text messages and not some kind of set up. It could just as easily be a trap to keep us out of their way while they do whatever they want with her."

Shouto frowns.

"It's real," he says with certainty.

Aizawa shoots him a look. He's not the only person from class there. He, Bakugou Yaoyarozu, Uraraka, Jiro, and Kaminari all stand in a line, as well as one of the other boys she's friends with. Shinso, he thinks. On top of that Wizard, the hero she had interned with, was in there with them.

"What makes you say that?"

"She said 'says the scorpion to the frogs'. It's a reference to us. When we were attacked by Stain while we were in Hosu city, he called her that. A scorpion surrounded by frogs," he hadn't understood it before, but now that he knows more about her and more about what she's done he understands. Stain had seen something in her, something that gave her away for what she used to be. What her father had made her into. And he'd judged her on it, and sent her into a spiral that had drawn her away from all of them.

Aizawa considers him closely before he nods, shortly, just once.

"Alright. So we know that it's her, and that she doesn't want us involved. But we can't do nothing. We have too much of an opportunity here to track down and take down the League of Villains. And, more than that, River is one of our students, and a future pro-hero. We owe it to her to get her back."

The words hang heavy around the room. They sink into his skin and Shouto knows, then and there, that whether they want him to involved in this rescue mission or not, he was going to help save his friend.

A glance at the others and he knows he's not alone in this. Bakugou has the stubborn set to his jaw, his eyes burning ahead. Uraraka's fists are curled tightly at her side and her mouth is pressed into a thin line. Kaminari's head is bowed and his hair crackles with threatening static. Jiro's eyes are locked on the words on the board, her earphone twitching minutely like she's striking some invisible wall. Yaoyarozu's arms wrap around her middle, and her lip is caught between her teeth.

Good. He'll need her most of all. She's good at planning, and her quirk is indispensinble. He'll need Uraraka as well, she's the perfect temper for Bakugou's anger and impulsiveness.

A hand touches his shoulder and he looks up, at Aizawa's dark eyes.

"You kids should go home. You've already told us everything you can about this. Go, get some rest, and let us handle everything else. You remember Hosu, don't you Todoroki?"

How could he forget?

He'd been watched nonstop for the following four weeks after his little stunt with the hero killer.

He still couldn't tell anyone how he'd managed to move. Only that he'd seen River bleeding, Midoriya on the ground and Stain standing tall and he'd lashed out, fire erupting from his fingertips. He'd never felt such little guilt using his flames.

* * *

River really, really wishes that she wasn't as comfortable in the bar as she is.

It's stupid. She knows the people here are crazy, but they're her kind of crazy. They're the kind of crazy that she'd grown up in, the kind that she had missed so, so much when she had been with Carter. When she had lived within the pale, lived the apple pie life, she had craved what she had lost.

Gen and Jess, Taro and Jazz, even Black Lace Anne and her vicious demands and knife tucked smiles. They were people she could tell all of herself to.

Her darkest deeds, her dumbest jokes.

She was close, now that her school friends knew about her past, but it wasn't the same. It wasn't the same as tossing gold fish into Toga's mouth while she told her about the time she'd broken a mans jaw in three places for whistling at her while she walked by.

There was such a relief for her, sitting between Dabi and Twice and chatting idly about how weird is is when people are cooked so fast their eyes pop like egg yolks out of their sockets.

"So, if you're like a billion years old," Dabi begins, "How do you date?"

River leans her head back on the couch, shrugging. "I dunno. I generally don't. I'll flirt with people, and have fun. But like, It's either I go out with someone kind of my physical age, and then I'm still older than them, or I go out with someone my chronological age, and then I'm way younger than them. And, my last boyfriend tried to burn me to death because I wouldn't fuck him."

She made a face.

"Maybe I should stick to dating girls…"

"If you were almost burned to death, why do you like Dabi? He's really hot. **He'd so weird**!"

River shrugs, glancing over at Dabi.

"I dunno. He's not gonna hurt me," she doesn't know how to explain why she's so certain. Maybe because he'd bet everything on her, more than once. There was some level of strange trust there.

He wouldn't burn her.

Dabi reached over and flicked a length of red behind her temple. "I'm still a villain."

"And I'm still a Death Dealer," she waves her lace tattoo at him and kicks her legs up across his lap, stretching out on the couch. "Fuck, I'm tired. Just let me sleep here…"

"No!"

They all look over when Tomura snaps at them suddenly. Even behind Father she can see his mouth curved down in a grimace.

"You can't sleep there," he goes on, irritated, but there's a new light in his eyes, like he'd just had an idea. "You need to be monitored. So you don't try to escape."

River struggles to hide her grin. Tomura is the most transparent person she's ever met in her life. She shakes her head at him, rolling up onto her feet. She winks at Dabi before turning to their little leader. This is almost like a vacation, where she get's to hang out with the villains instead of on a beach.

Even with what happened at the I Expo, she's still been in high spirits ever since coming back from America.

"You have something in mind, boss man?" she asks, crossing the room towards him.

He stumbles over his next words, snake eyes locked on her behind the mummified hand. She get's most of them anyhow.

"I'm going to sleep no, even if I have to do it on the bar," she warns him. "So, scoot."

"You can't tell me what to do!" he snaps at her. Childish, petulant.

She grasps his hand, minding his pinky, and tugs him to his feet.

"Right, right. You're the boss here. So lead the way, Tomura Shigaraki."

Tenko Shimura. Should she tell him that she knows?

No, probably a bad idea.

Still, it had a certain appeal….


	43. Hold on to Your Pants

**Tipsy me wrote some weird shit, and I've been trying to work with it for a couple of days because it went way off base! tbh tho all my chapter notes said was 'get kidnapped. be bi' so uh. Yeah. These chapters are gonna be kinds lighthearted, but I will post what I had originally planned for be the outcome for the kidnapping soon, maybe in a seperate fic maybe just in a chapter.**

* * *

River was privately amazed at where she was.

In a lot of ways, it was amazing to be there. In this world, for one thing, but more than that she could hardly believe that she was sitting, invited, in Tomura's bedroom. And Tomura himself looked even more shocked behind the covering of Father.

River sat on his bed, her legs crossed and her yellow eyes watching him move around the room, moving this and that from here to there. He had so much nervous energy. This boy needed xanax. Or just pot. Who knew.

"You know," she began, when he started to scratch his throat. "I can always bunk up with one of the girls."

"No!" he snapped, spinning around to stare at her, his red eyes wide.

River felt herself soften towards him. She scooted back against the mess of pillows along the headboard and waved him over. He had more pillows that he had last time, and it was crowded across the bed, but that was okay. She liked it.

She wanted to grab him, shove on the bed, and force him to go the hell to sleep already.

Instead, she shook her head as he pushed his chair out of the way, half covered in clothes. The boy didn't seem to have a hamper.

"Take off your jeans and come here, Tomura. It's too late for you to get this worked up."

He tripped, but ended up doing as he was told. River watched the poor, nervous wreck, as he moved around the room. Plugging in a phone, turning his monitor off, ever so delicately removing Father from his face and setting him down well within grasping distance, and pulling on the artist gloves that sat on the bedside table. River hummed softly. That made sense. She couldn't imagine trying not to destroy anything you were touching while sleeping.

She couldn't imagine having a quirk like his.

River cocked his head. She couldn't remember if Tomura even remembered all of what had happened when his quirk manifested. Not that she was going to bring that up.

Certainly not here, or now.

He sat at the edge of the bed, tugging at the gloves nervously. River took the incentive and grasped him by the long sleeve of his black shirt. He jumped like she'd hit him with a taser.

" _Tomura_ ," she said his name again, more firmly. "Take it easy. Just lay down, okay?"

Tomura mutely did as she instructed. He'd been so insistent downstairs, so sure of his course of action, but now that they were alone like this he was panicking. Did he think she was going to hurt him? Did he think he was going to hurt her?

She really could only understand him so much.

River lay beside him, on her back, not looking at him. Dabi or Twice would have been perfectly at ease with her. Toga and Magne, well girls slept in the same bed all the time. Spinner might well have fainted of emberassment if she suggested they sleep together.

Tomura… was tense. Rediculously tense.

She briefly considered knocking him out, but in the end she closed her eyes and evened her breathing. The sheets smelled like laundry detergent, the blankets were warm and fluffy, and she could hear everyone else still chatting downstairs.

She was almost asleep, or at least at resting, when something touched her hand. She didn't stiffen or move as long fingers carefully wrapped around her hand, grasping it carefully. River turned her hand in his, a smile crossing her face.

Her life was going to be so complicated after this.

Still, she let herself fall into rest. Not asleep, not around people who had 'kidnapped' her and attacked her classmates. Not when All For One could so easily come for her in the night, and she didn't know nearly enough about him to be comfortable with that. She didn't think he would do anything to her as long as Tomura was interested in her, but nonetheless. He was the biggest of the big bads, and a variable she wasn't sure how to plan for.

Carefully, she ran her thumb across the bump of Tomura's knuckles, tracing along the lines of the glove. That darkness enveloped the pair of them, until they were sinking into the shadows of night together.

* * *

When the sun lit the ceiling tiles softly River figured that she should probably get Tomura up.

Or at least move herself so her tits weren't being used as a pillow.

Despite her thoughts she couldn't bring herself to tear herself away from the boy. He had finally relaxed somewhere around three in the morning, falling asleep and migrating like a touch starved leach that latched onto her.

She was not exactly soft. She never had been. She was hard corded muscle and sharp edges that had been filed away with time and care until she was smooth, but not soft. She must have been soft enough to be comfortable. Tomura was for once at ease and Mina seemed inclined to sleep on her whenever she could, and she took that with a great deal of pride. Mina was adorable, and wild in just the right way.

It still threw her off, having the same classmates for every class and being around only those twenty something people every day, in and out. And, after this, they would all be moving in together.

What would happen to Jin?

She knew, logically, that he had the League of Villains now, but it felt like a cop out on her part. She was his friend, his neighbor, and she had seen him break down and he had listened to her talk about her Taro and her life, even when what she said didn't make a whole lot of sense. He was-

He was supposed to be taking care of her cat!

River stiffened, her eyes shooting open with the realization. Who the fuck was watching Tarmac?!

Tomura stirred with her movement, lifting his head and freezing when he realized where it had been. He looked up at her, his eyes huge and his mouth partially opened.

She couldn't pass up the opportunity.

She booped him in the nose.

"Good morning."

He launched himself off of her, scrambling so far back that she had to make a platform for him to crawl onto or he'd fall to the floor. It was unstable under him, easy to break. For he cared about her and she about him, each in their own strange ways.

"You!" he hissed, looking a bit like a cornered cat even though she was the one still pressed between the mound of blankets, the wall, and the boy who killed everything he touched.

"Me," she confirmed, sitting up slowly. She waited until he'd calmed down, or at least realized that she wasn't freaking out, to point underneath him. "Careful getting down. To your left."

His face was almost as red as his eyes as he climbed off of the platform and hurriedly fixed Father back over his face. He farely ripped the gloves right off of his fingers, tossing them onto the side table. River hopped out of the bed. No one had left last night, they'd all gone to separate rooms but not out of the bar. That made things easier.

"If you touched the wall," River asked abruptly, "Would you just put a hole in the wall, or would the whole building collapse?"

Tomura stopped ripped his jeans up along his legs, like it would hide his pale blue underwear when she'd already seen the boxers last night. He looked at her, his mouth curved downwards.

"It would just make a hole, unless I kept touching it."

Yet, when he touched her it ate up her skin ravenously.

How weird.

"I don't understand your quirk," she told him honestly, stretching her arms high above her head. Her back popped luxuriously. "Sometimes it keeps going, sometimes it doesn't, but it's an automatic process. How does that work? "

"It just does," he grumbled, fingers going for his throat. "How does your quirk work? Some people can break your walls and some people can't?"

River just shrugged. She didn't want him to know that he actually could kill her, unless she sheared off whatever part of her body was being disintegrated by his quirk before it got to her. He might freak out and start to shy away from her.

She probably should have wanted that.

"I need to go yell at Twice for leaving my cat alone," she announced.

"…what?"

"He's my neighbor. I asked him to watch my cat while I was gone, and instead he's here, being a villain and kidnapping me. Instead of watching me cat. I might kick him…"

Tomura just sort of watched her march out of the room before he scrambled to follow after her, trailing in her footsteps while she went down the stairs, around a hall, and into a section of the building that was less bar and more office building. There were different rooms along the oddly curved hallway. And a kitchenette sitting in the middle of the everything.

She went right for the third door on the left.

"How do you know he's in there?" Tomura asked at her elbow.

"I heard him go in last night," she explained. She gave Jin no warning, just shoved the door open and walzed right in.

It was far neater than his apartment. More bare, certainly, and his body suit was thrown haphazardly across the radiator, but there wasn't much for there to be a mess made out of. Besides a futon and some blankets he hadn't brought much into the little office.

Except for the small black shadows that sat up on top of Twice's head, blinking it's big yellow eyes at her.

"Tarmac!" she ran to the bed, sweeping the kitty into her arms. Jin grumbled and tried to burrow into the blankets, so used to her she didn't even register as a threat.

She didn't give him the chance.

"Oh no! You are no hiding from me when you brought my goddamn cat to a secret villain lair!" she ripped the blankets off of his body, ignoring the way he suddenly screamed and went right back to looking bored in a matter of two seconds.

"Don't look! I'm naked! **Geez, I was trying to sleep. C'mon, girl."**

"Don't you 'c'mon girl' me Jin! I left my cat with you! To watch! Not to bring here!" she ranted, cuddling Tarmac to her chest. She glared down at Twice, who was caught between covering his dick and trying to placate her with alternating hands.

 **"It's not like he was in** **danger**. Can I please have my pants now?"

"Not until you apologize!"

Their ruckus had roused the others, and by then everyone else was starting to filter down the hallway. Heads peaked around the doorframe, but no one got in the way of Rivers ranting. She carefully placed Tarmac on a platform at head height before she launched herself at Jin, tackling him. The futon flipped and the pair of them went grappling to the floor.

"Get off! I'm sorry! **You're overreacting, damn it**!"

"I am not over reacting!" she caught him in a head lock, her legs catching his arm and twisting him into an awkward clutch that he weaseled himself out of. For such a muscular man, he was frighteningly flexible.

"You're crazy! **It's kind hot**."

"Hypocrite!" she pointed a finger right in his face. She was breathing heavily, but there was a smile on her face and a spark in her eyes. Her anger had faded quickly, once she knew her precious baby boy was safe and sound , where she could keep an eye on him.

Tarmac watched the whole event unfold before he started cleaning himself, bored with their antics.

Dabi stepping into the doorway.

"Are we gonna watch this weird, half naked wrestling match all morning?" he asked, a master at sounding bored even as his eyes betrayed amusement.

"Yeah," Toga agreed, scrunching up her nose. "I'm hungry!"

"Now, when she called him a hypocrite, was she calling him crazy, or hot?" Magne mused. River shook herself away from Jin, huffing and grabbing Dabi by the arm. He g;amced at her, but made no move to shake her off.

"I know that look," he said, "What do you want?"

"To borrow some clothes?"

"Ask Toga. She's got enough of them."

"Yeah…" But she didn't know Toga as well as Dabi.

"Come here," Magne spoke, her voice a pleasantly smooth alto. "I'be got something that should fit you."

"You're my favorite," River told her emphatically, grasping the other woman's arm. Magne, followed by a pouting Toga, lead River to her room. River sat on the air, watching Magne go through a couple of spare drawers of clothes. Her room was much more lived in that Jin's, and less sparce. There was an actual mattress in the corner. Her weird magnet weapon was laid across a chest of drawers. River kicked her feet back and forth while Tarmac made himself at home sitting on her shoulder, no more interesting in the clothes than he was in their whole affair in the other room.

"You know," she said idly, "Sometimes I wish my power was more cat themed. Or at least like, my name was."

"Why?" Toga asked, cocking her head cutely.

"So I could wear boots designed like little cat paws with my hero outfit. Like Chat Noir. I'm totally jealous of his boots."

"…Do heroes have some rule that says that everything you do has to follow the one theme thing?" Toga made a face.

"It's encouraged, for brand reasons, but it's not a requirement," River admitted.

"So wear the cat boots anyways!" Toga reasoned. "Only, not as a hero. Wear them as a villain! With us!"

"I was wondering when you guys were going to break out your speeches," River cracked a smile. "Let's eat first, and then we'll see how much stockholms syndrome I've developed afterwards, okay?"

Magne passed her a sparkly purple spaghetti strap and some black jean shorts, as well as a pair of thigh high black socks. She arched a brow.

"Am I going clubbing?"

"I just think you'd look cute in them," Magne justified.

Well, River wasn't about to argue with that.

She changed, swiftly, and the girls went out to meet with the boys in the bar.

The wind outside changed, and with it, so too did the course of fate.


	44. Choices

River would be lying if she said she was in any hury to leave the League of Villains.

They were fun people. They were, weirdly, _good people_.

Rebels with a cause, whatever those causes were, they were delightful and bizarre, and beautiful.

River should have told Micheal to shove it when she first got here, and gone to join Tomura right off the bat. If she had done that, she wouldn't have been friends with any of her classmates, or Shinso, or the guys at Wizardry. She wouldn't have the weird bond with her teachers.

She would be able to stay where she was, a human buffer between Dabi and Tomura, who had a habit of needling eachother until she expected either of them to explode, while Magne ladelled their bowls full of food.

She could get along with these people.

She thought Spinner was his own brand of beautiful and she wanted desperately to know all about him, to strip him down and find all about his scales, and his teeth, and his hands and the little pads on his fingers that stuck him to the walls. She wanted to watch him play GTA while she played with his goggles, and maybe teach him how to actually jack a car.

She adored Twice. Both of him, their contradicting opinions and personalities. She loved his silly poses and his careless demenour, and his loyalty. She loves how true to himself he was, how unashamed of his personalities. She had no problem with his insanity, she had no problem with his masks. She understood. Trauma did things to people. It had made Jin split, but he was still adoring and he had still sat with her late in the night on the rooftop, joking about airplanes and shooting stars.

Magne. Beautiful Magne, who wanted a world where she could be free to be herself, and who was willing to fight for it with all her being. No matter what it took, or where she had to go. She was clever and, in her own ways, kind. River could see how Spinner had stared calling her sister, she was incredibly protective of the League and a queer type of motherly, and she alone truly understood Rivers poor jokes about being queer.

Toga she would have had a few more problems with. Not because of moral conflicts. River wasn't a hypocrite enough to judge her for killing men, River had killed more men in one day than everyone at the table had in their whole lives and she would stake money on it. No, they would clash over how they expressed their love. Toga was, of course, adorable, and River wanted to play dress up and poke at her little fangs and see her in sweet little dresses and put bows in her hair. Her eyes were beautifully gold, catlike and bright.

She was a bit more curious about Mustard, who she knew very little about. He was pragmatic and practical, but he used a gun and River did not like them. He bordered on arrogance, and he could bypass her barriers, but not her healing factor. She would be lying if she said she didn't want to know more about how he worked.

River would kill and die for Dabi, plain and simple.

Tomura. Tomura was where things got complicated. Tomura was like her. Killed their parents. Raised to be criminals. Bordering on sociopathic. They even both scratched at their necks, one more severed than the other. Yet, they had taken such opposite routes in their lives. They had gone such vast directions. River was as her Taro had been. Merely a contract killer, she never killed anyone out of hatred. That was the rule. Contrary to Tomura, who's entire life revolved around enacting revenge on a world that had wronged him and destroying everyone who got on his nerves.

He wanted to destroy the world.

She wanted to love in it.

And that was her biggest dilemma.

River didn't pick at her food, she ate swiftly, too sensible to let it go to waste while Toga and Twice chattered across the table with Mustard interjecting now and again.

"You look like you're going to go scam a rich man out of his gold card," Dabi said suddenly, throwing River off.

She turned her head to look at him, yellow eyes wide. He had a half smile cracked across his glas-glow face. River recognized the jab for what it was. Something to get her out of her head and into the present. She elbowed him.

"You hush. I'm hot, and you know it."

"I'm hotter," he blew a jet of blew fire in her face. It wreathed around her briefly. She laughed, unafraid of Dabi.

"That's just not fair," River huffed. "You get to have some fancy bullshit, and I just make mimes real."

Dabi snorted at her. "You wanna trade?"

"What, and trade trajic backstories? _Fuck that_ bro." Taro's love more than made up for the whole killing people for a living thing. She had no need of a father who didn't apriciate their children. Neither did Shouto or Dabi, come to think of it…

"Hey, Tomura?" she turned to the leader, who glanced at her. He was pouting.

"What?"

"D'you know a good info broker around? Or just a descent hacker?"

"I can hack," he sat a little straighter, "Why?"

"I wanted to look someone up. Juushiro Inoue."

"Why?" He asked, but he was already standing up and moving towards the corner of the room. There was a laptop plugged into the wall over there. She had a feeling there were computers in all rooms of the building. How closely was AFO watching them? Had he been listening in the night before?

"I want to know about his parents," she explained. "Past hospital bills, police reports, credit card statements. You know. The works."

"This is all illegal," he mentioned.

"It's not even close to the most illegal thing I've ever done, babe," she said dryly. She finished the last of her rice and went to his side, leaning on his shoulder and watching him work. He was quick and efficient, even without being able to use all of his fingers. She was a little bit jealous.

"You don't belong with the heroes," he said. Quiet, but not false. River sighed quietly.

The information lined up in front of her. The family had gone to the hospital three times since she'd seen the kid last, in the hospital in Hosu. The cops had been called on noise complaints, and there had been a child services investigation two years ago that hadn't turned anything up.

The mother, Ruka, had been to the hospital once in the last year over blury vision in her right eye only.

Tomura made a sound in the back of his throat. He recognized what River did.

The signs. The obvious.

The things that heroes didn't get invoved in.

A small flicker of anger reached itself inside her chest. Damn it.

"Heroes never came for me," she said, too low for the others to hear.

Tomura peered at her. So quiet she almost missed it, he said, "They never came for me either."

River linked arms with him.

"Wanna help me kill a guy?"

* * *

With Kurogiri that were back in ten minutes. In, out, Tekuya Inoue dead and dusted into a trash can. It was one of the fasted things River had ever done.

"Where were you guys when I was a kid?" she asked as she stepped back into the hide out. "D'you know how many times I had to run or get shot? Or try and clean blood out of window panes to hide evidence? Club soda does not work for that!"

"Not born yet, remember." Tomura went to sit back on his normal bar stool, starting up a handheld game. Everyone had migrated from the back rooms to the bar in the time they were gone, and River took up residency sitting in the air a little bit in the middle of everything.

"How old were you when you first killed someone?" Toga asked, bouncing up towards her. River took her hand and pulled her easily into the air, making her a seat across from herself to they were both sitting on empty air.

"Intentionally or accidentally?" River asked, inspecting Toga nails. There was a little dried blood under one, but they were remarkably well manicured.

"Both!"

"Five-ish? For both."

"Seriously?" Spinner looked at her, his mouth agape.

"Well, yeah. I think I was around five. We didn't really do birthdays in the house, but I hadn't lost any teeth yet. So, around five. And I killed a guy in fighting pits before the new year."

"You must have been tiny!"

"Yeah," River agreed, "But a talent is a talent. Maybe my quirk is just 'kill the boy' or some shit, who knows."

"That would be fucked up," Dabi said.

"Truth."

"You don't belong with heroes."

River looked at Tomura. She'd been waiting for this. For his speech.

She turned towards him, waiting. The others took up what looked like rehearsed positions. How fucking extra.

"You can't believe that you belong with the heroes. The self reightous and the ones that uphold the status quo. The ones who keep people like us forced down in the shadows. Have you seen the news in the last few days? Everyone's blaming UA for what happened to you. For not protecting you better. All they did was make one mistake, lost one person, and the whole world jumps on them. That's how it'll always be, especially for someone like you. Everyone here has suffered. At the hands of heroes, or rules, or the shackles of society. Are you really okay, enforcing the rules that they made up? Being in the spot light? Being judged, just for being human?"

Human. What a novel thought.

River looked around her, weighing her words carefully. She didn't know exactly how to say them. She didn't know that she wanted to say them at all.

She looked at Spinner. Outcast. Lizard. Quirks were more wide spread, but not everyone appreciated his unique beauty.

Twice. Ten pounds of crazy, five pound bag, who could love himself but who society would never tolerate.

Magne. How did transphobia even still exist?

How did any of this still exist? Quirks had been around for almost two hundred years, and yet people were still racist, people were still homophobic, transphobic, ablieist. People still looked away from children with broken arms and stayed out of what wasn't 'their' business.

"Apathy is the greatest evil of the human condition," she said quietly. "To look at another person who's hurting and say 'it's not my concern. They aren't my problem' and do nothing to help, and think because they weren't yours you are absolved of being involved. That's how I came to be. And that's how heroes are, too. If it's not within their rules, their laws, they don't do anything about the pain of others. Heroes never came for me."

"As soon as the mere act of providing protection merited monetary compensation, was the moment heroes stopped being heroes. Stain taught us that," Spinner said wisely.

River cracked a smile.

"Stain, huh? He's a smart guy. He saw me for what I am right off. He called me on it. I'm not a hero, and however hard I try I might never be. I know that. The thing is…"

"The thing is, I don't think I actually believe that heroes exist."

Her words hung heavy in the air.

"They're just people. Some are doing things because they think it's right. Some are doing it because they want fame, or fortune, or anything else. Yet, at the end of the day, they're just people. They can't be everywhere, and there's going to be times where we have to save ourselves. That should be easier, in a world where almost everyone has a quirk. Yet, it's not."

"The laws were made before quirks were widespread. And now society has returned to where it was. Stagnant and unmoving. You guys aren't wrong."

"I hear a 'but' coming," Dabi frowned at her.

" 'but'," River nodded towards him. "You have something that I don't. All of you, and my classmates too, have the conviction and drive to change the world. Whereas I'm only interested in spending my life with people I like. And without that, and as long as I have friends at UA who care about me, I can't join you. I'm sorry."

She watched Tomura's hands inch up towards his throat.

"How can you say such stupid things?" he hissed, clawing at himself. "Sentimental! Rediculous!"

"I know," she smiled at him, halfheartedly. "I'm sorry. I know you don't understand. But that's my truth, and that's my answer. I can stay one more night, but after that I have to go home."

"Who says we'll let you go?" Mustard asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

River tossed him a careless wave. "I do. I know I can go toe to toe with everyone here, except Kurogiri, and there's not much he can do. Drop me in a box, I guess, but I'll get out. Take my to All For One? That won't end well. If you'll have me, I'll stick around one more night."

"No," Tomura glared harshly at her. "No! Kurogiri! Get rid of her! If she wants to go home so badly, let her!"

"Tomura-" Kurogiri began at the same time River murmured, "Honey…"

"Now!" he shrieked.

The darkness whirled away from the villain, swept across River, and she was gone.


	45. Triumphant Return

She knocked three times before the door was opened.

Nezu stood in front of her, down on the ground. She could see, further in the room, the rest of the faculty was gathered around a table, minus All Might. River stood in front of them, still in her borrowed clothes, with Tarmac held close to her chest. He'd been ejected from a portal shortly after she had stumbled out of the bar and into the grass.

"River!"

Aizawa stood up so fast the chair knocked back, halfway across the room.

"Hey," she waved at them, leaning against the doorframe. "It's been a minute."

She found herself dragged into the room and sat at the table, then bombarded with questions. She answered most of them.

While she was there no one refered to eachother by their real names. Their quirks, she only saw fire, duplication, decay, and the warping. They kept her inside, and when leaving and coming in she was sent with Kurogiri's portals.

"How did you escape?" Present Mic asked, leaning across the table to look at her.

"I didn't," she shrugged at him. "I ticked off Tomura Shigaraki and he told Kurogiri to get rid of me."

She didn't acknowledge how much that stung.

"He dropped me off in the park a little ways away."

"Did they hurt you?" Midnight asked, staring at her intently.

"Nah," she shook her head, "They were trying to convince me to join them. Is everyone else okay? Did Ragdoll make it out alright?"

"Ragdoll?" Aizawa repeated, "She's fine, why?"

"Well, the Nomu came for her. Midoriya and I were there, but they had no way of knowing that we were going to be the first ones to make it to the set up. I think All For One was interested in taking her quirk," she said slowly.

Aizawa frowned. "We'll let the Pussy Cats know, but for now everyone else is safe. And so are you. Someone should call All Might and let him and the others know?"

"Other's?" River repeated, frowning. "What others? Where's All Might?"

Aizawa exchanged a glance with Nezu, who climbed back up into the tall seat. The little rodent guy faced her. Tarmac climbed up on the table and trotted over to Aizawa, who picked him up obediently.

"When you were taken, we contact a number of other heroes so that we could mount a proper rescue mission. It's taken a few days, but we're enacting the plan tonight. With you already safe, things will be much easier, and one of our primary objectives has already been fulfilled. "

"Did you not get my text?" River struggled to keep her volume under control.

"We got it. But we weren't about to leave you in the clutches of villains. You have to understand, River, you don't have a liscence, and you don't have the training to do these kinds of things."

"Bull shit," River snapped. "I've had more 'training' than anyone here. I'm perfectly capable of knowing when I'm in over my head, and I'm not some little kid that needs you to save me from the bad guys."

 _Heroes never came for me_.

And now that she didn't want them to, they were.

"River," Aizawa said again, voice sharper. "It wasn't a bad plan, but you had no excape, no back up, and no extraction plan."

"I had all of them. I could have gotten away, I gave me cellphone to Bakugou, and if I needed to I could have made a call for you to trace. There was no where there that I wouldn't have been able to get away from, even if they could get past my barriers. You're acting like the only training I've had is from you, but it's the opposite. I've hardly learned anything since I got here. I've gotten in and out of a hundred more difficult situations than being around the League of Villains, with people much more intent on killing me."

"Be that as it may, we couldn't risk your safety," Nezu said diplomatically.

"Or," River turned her yellow eyes on him, her teeth sharpened to bite, "You couldn't risk my loyalty?"

Nezu didn't respond. River stood up, stealing Tarmac from Aizawa. His claws sunk into her arms and he hissed at Nezu, fur fluffing up.

"Does anyone know where Midoriya and Bakugou went?" she asked, ignoring the ugly flush of anger that colored her cheeks.

"Bakugou and Midoriya? Bakugou went home after camp, and Midoriya was in the hospital for a few days. Why?" Vlad King asked.

River didn't give him an answer. Knowing her friends, they were bound to do something stupid and heroic. She swept out of the room, taking her cat with her. Tarmac climbed up onto her should, curling around her neck. She didn't have her phone, so she couldn't try and find their snapchat location.

Fuck.

She had no idea where to find them. She'd taken out the Nomu so Yaomomo couldn't have put a tracker on it. Where would they even go? They could have deduced a few things from the pictures Toga sent, but nothing more than the fact that they were in a bar. She didn't think her friends were clever enough to figure out how to track them down based on the few clues in the background.

On top of that, the only person who's home address she knew was Yaomomo. Mostly she had people over at her place, not the other way around.

Once she left the school, heedless of anyone who might be following her, she made her way to a payphone. The fact that even still existed was hilarious, but she was glad that they did.

She punched in her own phone number and waited, letting it ring. She half expected one of the teachers to answer it, but it was a gruff, familiar voice that finally picked up on the other side.

"Hello?"

"…Firecracker?"

"River!"

She heard a clamor on the other side of the line, a bunch of people fighting to get attention and the phone being passed to jibberish for a good minute. She leaned against the wall, smiling to herself.

"Get back damn it!" Bakugou finally shouted, followed by a sharp crackle of an explosion. "Fuck. Where are you?"

"I'm out, where are you?"

"Kamino Ward."

"Fuck, seriously? Why?" she demanded.

"We were looking for you!"

"How'd you ever- No, never mind. You need to get out of there. The heroes were planning a raid. Shits about to go down, and you need to get out of there."

"Fine. Where are you?"

"I'm by the school. I just saw the teachers. Meet me at my apartment?"

A minute of quiet.

"Rich chick says we should go to her house."

"Alright, I'll see you at Yaomomo's house," she agreed. That she could do, and they had more room there than they did at her place. She hung up and, Tarmac still balancing precariously on her shoulders, she started her way to Yaomomo's place. She'd have to take a train to get all the way out there, and she didn't have any money…

She paused at the train station. A familiar face stood in the crowd, eyes down cast to his phone. She knew that person.

Blond hair, pale eyes behind thick glasses. He was still wearing a nice suit, not as fancy as the last one she'd seen him in, and a bag hung at his hip. He wasn't paying attention to anyone around him, but she had a feeling he was aware of everything going on around him.

River came up beside him, barefoot and dressed like she'd been dancing all night.

"You always show up in weird places," she said. He looked up at her. His brows furrowed with confusion before recognizition set in.

"Sentinel," he realized.

"River," she corrected him. "River Quinton. Hi again. It's been a minute."

"A little longer than a minute. The last time I saw you, you were on the news for being attacked by a serial killer, and again you got kidnapped. You look pretty alive, to me."

"I am," she smiled at him. "Yeah, that was a fun night…"

"What happened?"

"That's a long ass story. Uh, to make it short? He was attacking my friend, I ran to help them, I got stabbed. Uh, had an existencial crisis for a while, but it's all good now," she gave him a thumbs up. "Oh, and then I was kinapped by some villains a few days ago. But I'm all good now," she gave him a thumbs up.

"Uh huh," he looked her over. River had the vague realization that she probably looked a little like a hooker, without heels. Oh well. "Where are you going?"

"My friends house. I just gotta get a ticket. Or, sit on top of the train. I don't have a phone or a wallet with me," she admitted, head dropping to the side. "Woe is me."

"Are you trying to get me to buy you a train ticket?" His tone changed. Some strange under current, a reverberation that she could feel in her teeth.

"Huh? No. If you want to you can, but I felt like talking to you, ya know?"

"You enjoy talking to me," he surmised, suspicion in his voice, but his shoulders dropped. He believe her. River kind of shrugged.

"I guess. You just- This is gonna sound stupid. You seem like a good person to talk to. "

Shin opened his mouth to say something. Stopped, and pushed his hand into his pocket. "I'll get you a ticket. Tell me more about what you've been doing?"

"That sounds like a deal," a smile broke her face. Shin did indeed buy her ticket, just in time for them to both board the train. Shin was going the same way as her, so she sat at his side, and while they went on she told him about a bit about her trip to America. Not all of it, she left out anything about the four horsemen, or potential apocolypses, and REACH and ATLAS, but she told him about Colleen, and her uncle, and their confrontation.

"And I burned house down," she finished.

"You really are very honest," Shin mused. She knew who he was now. She knew, honesty was important to him.

"I told you that when we met," she elbowed him lightly. "This is my stop. Thanks for the ticket, Nemoto."

"Before you go," he stopped her, holding out a small piece of paper, "here."

She took it from him and looked it over. A business card. Shin Nemoto, and a phone number underneath. That was it. No business, no email address, just a phone number. If she had to bet, she'd say it was a burner phone, or attached to a burner phone through a couple of filter numbers.

"Thanks," she smiled at him and stood, making her way to the gront of the train as it finally came to stop. She hopped off, ignoring the unpleasant look the driver shot her. Judgemental and rude, and bordering on leering. Why were men gross?

She made her way into the trees, towards the half hidden path of Yaomomo's ridiculously huge mansion. She was first one there, and she took her time to sit outside the gate instead of try and convince someone to let her into the high class place dressed as she was. She had to wait for her friends now.

* * *

It was almost dusk when her classsmates finally appeared at the end of the driveway.

She could just barely see the city lights in the distance, light up the horizon, but Yaomomo lived so far away from the rest of the world that that was the only sign that there was any city anywhere nearby.

Their shadows fell across the ground, leading the way for the group. She didn't know who she'd been expecting, but who she got was Midoriya, Bakugou, Shinso, Yaomomo, Todoroki, and Kaminari. River stepped out in front of them.

"Hey guys."

She would have said more, but the second she was within sight Kaminari had launched himself across the ground, locked his arms around her and hugged her with so much force she felt her back crack.

"Kami-nari!" she grunted, even as she wrapped her arms around him in turn. "Hey."

"River!" Yaomomo raced up to her, with Todoroki on her heels, and Bakugou after her. Midoriya brought up the rear, his green eyes wide and rimmed in red. They all looked like they'd been crying…

"What happened?" she asked, carefully extracting herself from Kaminari. She kept on arm around his shoulders while she pulled Yaomomo over by her middle, giving her a squeeze.

"Haven't you seen the news?" she asked, even as she hugged her back. River shook her head.

"No, Bakugou has my phone. Was it the raid on the League of Villains?"

"How'd you know about that?"

"Nezu mentioned that they were going to try and 'rescue' me tonight… I take it you guys were going to do the same thing?" she looked across them.

Midoriya, Yaomomo and Kaminari were the only ones who had the decency to look sheepish.

"I know what you said when we were in the forest. About, the last time you told me to run. But it didn't feel right. We couldn't leave you with the villains, even if you were going to spy on them!"

"Yeah," Kaminari added, "They could have hurt you, or worse. Just because you have a healing quirk doesn't mean you're invincible. And it doesn't mean that you can't be hurt! And, you're out friend so we had to do something. Even if it was just going to make sure that you really were the one who sent the text."

Yaomomo nodded along, and River sighed.

Why didn't anyone trust her?

Oh, yeah. Red River.

"You guys are sweet…" It felt different from her friends. It wasn't because they distrusted her. It was because they were worried for her. Not for what she might do.

"But still. You shouldn't have done this," she reached over and tweaked Midoriya's ear.

He squeaked, jerking back from her.

"Well we did it anyways!" Bakugou snapped at her, his temper flaring. "We're not gonna do nothing, damn it! "

"You're our friend," Todoroki told her firmly, stepping up beside Bakugou. It was surreal, to see all of them on the same front, agreeing with one another instead of at eachothers throats.

River pressed her lips together, looking down at the ground.

These were her friends. She had so many friends, and such a complicated life, now. Things were so much easier when all she had to worry about was killing without being killed.

Yet, she couldn't find it in her to want to go back to that.

She reached out and knocked her knuckles against Shinso's, who'd said the least for a boy who's quirk involved speech.

"Thanks. Really, you guys. Can we go inside though? It's cold, and I don't have shoes."

"Why don't you have shoes?" Yaomomo demanded. Her arm glowed with her quirk.

"Because I didn't have them on when Tomura Shigaraki kicked me out of their hideout, and I don't have my apartment keys or my wallet. They were all with my stuff in the room at the camp."

"We've got your bags inside. Come one," she handed her a pair of flats and barely gave her time to put them on before she grabbed her hand and dragged her to the house.

It was only then that River realized she probably coudld have broken in, and not gotten into any trouble.

Whoops.


	46. Dorms and Dorks

It took a week for someone to arrive on her door.

For All Might to arrive. Jin hadn't come back since the raid at the bar, for good reason, and she'd spent days in there with Tarmac. Her meager belongings were packed up. Clothes, mostly. She was ready to go if and when she needed to.

She opened the door and found herself looking at a skeleton of a man.

It had happened the way it had before. All Might had used up the last of his powers to fight All For One on live tv, and now the world knew his secret. He was officially retired, and Endeavor was the number one pro.

The world was changing.

Good.

She hadn't seen it much when she'd first arrived. She was too filled with elation from the simple fact of her not being the only person in the world with super powers. But, with the Inoue, and her time with the LoV, she had been forced to acknowledge that the world hadn't really changed that much.

It still had so far to go before everyone could have a chance at happiness.

She wanted to see it happen, but much stronger was the simple desire to stay with her friends. Her friends who were split now, between heroes and villains. Maybe she could earn another favor and all of them could fuck off to the Lonely Mountain, kill a dragon, and live together in dwarven caves.

"Come in," River said to All Might, instead of voicing her thoughts.

"Thanks," He nodded at her and stepped inside, speaking english almost perfectly. She shut the door, locking it behind him. The building was sturdy, but it wasn't nice. Her apartment was scarce but not in the minimalist way. She just didn't have much, and what she did have was in boxes and bags already. She had all of her windows shut and locked, to dissuade any reporters who might get the bright idea to try and come interview her.

River went to sit at the table, and All Might sat across from her. Tarmac watched his sways of blond hair intently.

"I take it you've seen the news," he joked midly, gesturing down to his small body.

River shrugged. "I knew before hand, but yeah. I saw the news."

"You- How did you know?" he sputtered.

"I saw you change a couple of times," she said honestly. "I never said anything because it was none of my business. Everyone has aspects of their quirks that they don't want other people to know about, and you've got a lot of enemies."

"That's true…" All Might laced his fingers in front of him. "I almost told you. When you were in the hospital, you told us the truth about you, and it didn't feel right for me to lie to you about my true form."

River's heart warmed. "It's okay," she said again. "And, I'm sorry that you had to lose your power because of me. I wish you hadn't gone and tried to mount a rescue."

"Nezu told me what happened in the school," All Might grimaced. "I wanted you to know, I didn't go after you because I didn't truth that you wouldn't betray our school. Most of the other teachers feel the same way. Aizawa included."

River searched his face, trying to find a lie. She couldn't.

"… I don't get you. I don't get how you can be like this. You're the real deal. Someone who genuinely wants to help other people, just to help them."

All Might looked at her, his eyes unbearably soft.

"Tell me, River. If you saw someone on the street getting held at gun point, would you intervene?"

River thought of the woman with the sunset eyes and nodded.

"Yeah."

"And if you found out that someone was going to try and blow up a building, would you stop the bomb?"

"Sure."

"Even if you were going to get hurt in the process?"

River frowned. "Who cares about that? People are gonna be hurt- oh."

"There you go. See, that part of you that not just thinks that, but will act on those thoughts, that's what will make you a good hero. Because you care about people too, River."

River looked down, counting the grains in the table. She cared about people. She guessed. It was just in a way that was different from the normal manner. She tapped her fingers on the wood. All Might had a point. She still didn't believe in heroes.

But maybe she believed a little in humans.

In her friends. Even the villain ones, who would change this world, and the hero ones would would not let the world crumble.

"Did you get the letter from the school? About the new dorms?"

"Yeah. I hope you don't expect me to have a parent who can sign it," she joked, but it fell flat. All Might shook his head, and that's when Tarmac pounced, launching himself at his bangs.

The hero shouted and jumped back, but the cat was faster, ripping at his bangs with a flurry of strikes.

River laughed, watching Tarmac attach himself to All Mights head, knocking him clear onto the floor. She stood up and came around, plucking the cat forcefully off of him and dragging him away. All Might said up, trying to fix his dandelion hair again to no avail.

"I can bring the cat, right?"

* * *

Moving day was about the same as she thought it was going to be. Everyone gathered with their luggage, Aizawa gave his little speech, and they were all allowed to run wild. No one got in trouble, because this time around no one got caught breaking the rules.

They were insanely extravagant.

River had lived in dorms before, she had lived in military housing before, she'd been inside the Wizardry agency bunker. All of it was garbage compared to the Height Alliance dorms.

They had a common area, a kitchen, even a court yard. And her room was twice the size of her old apartment. She'd used the last of her winnings in the pits to pay for a desk, new sheets, and such. A cat tree was set up by the window, which was covered in black out curtains that magnetically stayed shut. The middle of the room was occupied by a circle table and the walls were packed together with books, notebooks, and more.

Shed been trying to recreate and grow her original collection, and it was coming along nicely.

Once she had everything right, sheets in place and books put away, she made her way down to the common area and flopped down beside Kaminari on a couch. Midoriya was sitting on a chair, and Iida was doing his robot impression.

"Done unpacking?" Kaminari asked, tossing an arm around her shoulder.

"Took a while, but yeah. I'm glad they had someone else move our boxes and furniture in for us. Or else my back might have broken," she joked.

"Seriously! I had no idea beds were that heavy!"

River laughed, leaning back against the couch and Kaminari's arm. She needed to spend more time with this boy.

"Mina and Hagakure are about to come in," she announced.

Right on cue, the girls bounced into the room, bubbly as always.

"That's so weird," Kaminari told her.

"Honestly, I can't believe you can't do it too. Can't you hear the electricity inside of people?"

"Uh, not usually. I mean, I'm mostly focused on my own electricity you know?"

"Not really. I don't have electric powers, doll. You get a fun, flashy quirk."

"You get a healing factor!"

"My powers just not as cool! You can't even see my barriers, and I don't even sparkle when I heal."

Kaminari snickered at her. "You're so weird. You can do crazy stuff, but because it doesn't look cool you don't like it?"

"It's all about the aesthetic, babe."

"Speaking of aesthetic!" Mina jumped in, tossing herself into River's lap. She wrapped an arm around her middle easily. "Some of the girls and I have been talking and," Mina started.

"We had a great idea!" Toru jumped onto the train.

"Let's go around and see who has the coolest room?" Mina finished.

Had they rehearsed? Probably, they were so damn extra. She loved these girls.

"I'm game," she shrugged casually. "Kami?"

"Love it when you call me that," he grinned. "Sure, we can do that. Is everyone else in?"

In a couple of minutes they had everyone gathered up for the judging. River even managed to run upstairs and drag Bakugou down for it too.

They went through the fanboy rooms, the dark room, the painfully sparkling room. Most of the rooms were pretty normal, besides that. Except Mina, Jiro, Sero, and Todoroki, who had completely redone everything in them.

Bakugou's room was pretty plain too. Just a bed, a chest of drawers, and a desk with a computer set up. His sheets were red, and the most eye catching thing in the room.

Finally, they came to River's room. She let them in, opening it up. Tarmac looked up from the bed in the cat tree, only vaguely interested in the goings on of these strange little humans.

"It's nice, but… where's the bed?" Mina asked, looking around.

River grinned. She went over to the desk, attached to the wall and surrounded by book cases, and pulled on the top. It swung down, the shelves keeping vertical with the ground, to reveal the bed hidden inside. Her black and white floral comforter, tucked in around deep green sheets.

"Secret bed," she said brightly.

"That's so cool!" Mina jumped over to it. "And you've got a little kitty!"

"You've met Tarmac before, you know."

"He's still adorable," Mina insisted.

Tokoyami picked up Tarmac, scratching down his back. "You should have named him Abyss."

"He's the abyss that stares back," River grinned. "I can't believe they let me bring him along. I mean, I can becase Aizawa is a sucker for cats, but still."

"He is cute… we've still got a couple more rooms to go though, c'mon!" Mina grabbed her hand and pulled her out the door, and she grabbed Tokoyami's, the one not holding Tarmac. The fierce battle of 'coolest room' waged on.

She wasn't even a little surprised when Sato won. His cake was to die for.


	47. Incompatible Quirks

**River : Guess who!**

 **Nemo : I guess River.**

 **Nemo : heard students get to live in dorms now**

 **River : they're stupid fancy idk where the school gets its funding**

 **River : I could teach these kids to smack down with a warehouse and a few sticks**

 **Nemo : watch the hubris**

 **River : probs good advice**

 **River : what about you where do conmen in japan live?**

 **Nemo : how'd you guess I'm a conman?**

 **River : I know what it sounds like when someone's trying to sell something I heard you talking at the party**

 **Nemo : you've been around the block**

 **River : you have no idea**

 **River : you didn't answer me. Upscale apartment**

 **River : over a brew pub**

 **River : big castle in the woods**

 **Nemo : apartment building**

 **River : that's kinda boring**

 **Nemo : where did you live before?**

 **River : …**

 **River : Apartment building**

"Who are you texting?"

River looked up from the table to see Todoroki standing with a bag of groceries in his arms. The kitchen were stocked with the basics, but if they wanted anything specific they had to go out and get what they wanted themselves.

"One of the guys I met during my internship," she set the phone down and stood up. "Want some help? What-cha got?"

"I've got it," Todoroki shook his head. "It's just some stuff for dinner. Are you busy tonight?"

"Huh? No, not really. I was gonna hit up the training fields but that's about it. You wanna come with?"

"Sure," Todoroki offered her one of his rare smiles, a ghost of a thing that she'd been seeing more and more lately. She atched him got into the kitchen, smiling to herself. Her phone went off again.

An address.

How did she keep getting villains interested in her?

 _Shouldn't have gone to school, should have just been a villain. You'd be better at that. You should go get people together and start a Robin Hood agency._

She paused.

Now _there_ was an idea.

She wasn't much of a master mind, she was a hitter, but she knew the classics, she knew how to adapt, and she knew how to disappear. As long as no one needed her to be the grafter or the front man-

She shook her head, trying to banish the thoughts that started to weasel their way into her head. She needed to do something and get busy. So, with a word to Todoroki that she was going on ahead, she went and left. She jogged out into the sunshine, in just her black t shirt and tropical patterned board shorts. She had been going to go to the pool later, but now her plans had changed.

Their dorm was a few minutes away from her favorite training grounds. The ones that were shaped like the industrial part of a city, and they were perfect for her to run along the pipes, jump onto barriers, and cut things into teeny tiny cubes. She practiced, like Aizawa had had her doing before. Pushing and holding more and more. Until she heard someone yell a few blocks behind her.

It didn't sound like Todoroki.

River turned around and jogged down the street, back the way she'd come. She didn't know what the yelling was, so she carefully kept all of her barriers in place, even though her head was starting to hurt. She turned the corner and came to a stop.

Three people stood in the middle of the street, two of them in UA gym uniforms. One of them was laying flat on his back, staring up at the seemingly empty sky, totally naked. River knew there was a barrier up there, horizontal to the earth. His nose was bleeding faintly.

On one side of him was a fast talking girl with curly bluw hair that floated around her shoulders, and a boy who looked like he'd walked out of a Dracula set.

Oh.

 _Oh_.

"Oh."

They looked over at her. She waved her hand and allowed the walls, all of them, to disappear. Bunch of pipes fell to the ground in perfectly square pieces.

"Sorry," River scratched at her neck idly. "I think that was my fault?"

"You smacked my nose?" the blond boy sat up, looking at her with oddly round, bright blue eyes. He didn't have much in the way of pupils, but River knew better than to think he would be blind. Quirks were weird like that. He was positioned in a way to preserve his own modesty.

"I think so?"

"How'd you do that?" the girl bounced up in front of her. "Was that your quirk? How does it work? I didn't see anything. Is it invisible? Why is some your hair red? Did you dye it? Who are you? Oh oh! You're a student right? You were the one who won the sports fest for the first years!"

River blinked at her a couple of times.

"It was my quirk, yes. It's like invisible walls I guess? I didn't dye my hair, it's just like this. I'm River Quinton. Yes, and yes… was that all of them?"

She looked to the boys for help.

The blond laughed at her. "Yeah, that was all of them! Can you do that again? "

"Uh, sure."

River placed her hand palm flat forwards in front of her. Her hand pressed against something that wasn't really there. The Dracula boy handed the blond a pair of sweat pants that he swiftly stepped into while the rest of them looked away politely.

Once his pants were back up the boy walkover and pushed his hand against her. And pushed, and pushed, and pushed. A slight furrow appeared on his broes before he broke into a laugh.

"Oh wow! Nothing's ever done that before! My quirk lets me go through solid objects, but I can't seem to get through this."

"Well, it's not really a solid object," River admitted. "It can't block sound, or air, or heat. So I guess you quirk and mine just aren't very compatable?" she guessed.

"I guess not!" the boy laughed brightly. "Sorry to surprise you. Hope you didn't see my willy."

"That is literally the lamest thing I've ever heard someone call a dick," River said flatly. Still, she smiled. "Don't worry about it dude. Uh, Mirio right?" She said before she just started throwing their names at them.

"And, Nejire and Tamaki?" she pointed at one, then at the other. The vampire-that-wasn't stiffened when her finger pointed at him. He hunched, staring down at his shoes. The girl, contrarily, bounced right up to her, her eyes pretty and bright.

"Yeah! But, we don't know you yet!"

"I saw you on tv," truth. "And c'mon, doesn't everyone know UA's 'Big Three' ? " she booped Nejire in the nose, just because she could. "You're adorable."

"Oh?" Mirio smiled wider. "You only us because you think Nejire is adorable?"

"Well I mean, Tamaki is too but I think if I boop him he'll pass out."

Mirio laughed at her. "He might!"

River eyed Tamaki speculatively, until he did an about face and hunched over, shoulders tight around his ears. River shook her head.

"Okay, okay. No booping Tamaki." She grinned. "What're you guys doing out here?"

"We were training," Mirio said brightly. "Most kids are still getting settled in, we didn't expect to see anyone else here."

"One of my friends is coming around too, once he'd done with groceries," River admitted. "We can move somewhere else…"

"That's fine," Mirio shook his head. He propped his hands on his hips, grinning down at her. Before he could say anything else to her, Nejire jumped up to her side.

"Why don't you two stay here, and we can see what you first years can do!"

"Fine with me," River shrugged. "But uh, will your friend be okay?" she nodded to Tamaki, who looked like he wanted to sink into the ground every time she glanced his way.

"Tamaki will be fine!" Nejire promised, patting her friend roughly between the shoulders.

He looked like he was going to throw up.

River lifted up on her toes when she felt the minute change in temperature. Todoroki came walking around the corner. He paused when he saw them, gaze flickering from the third years to her and back against before he kept walking coming over.

River tried not to laugh when Nejire attacked him with her questions instead of her quirk, talking a mild a minute. River fucking loved her.

"So… You walk through walls, do you disappear and fly?"

Mirio looked at her, confusion dimming his smile for a minute before it lit back up. "I'm much more unique than the other guys."

River laughed in delight, clapping her hands together. Yes! These guys were awesome!

"Todoroki! These guys wanted to train with us, is that okay?"

Todoroki looked at her, taking the save from the overwhelming presence of Najire Hado. His mis-matched eyes were wide and a little bit nervous.

"Sure," he said, swiftly stepping past Nejire. He walked quickly to Rivers side.

"How do you guys wanna do this?" River asked. "Free for all, or teams, or like. I dunno, role play?"

"Oh! Oh! I know! We split up, two people can be heroes, and the other three can be villains! It'll be like a class simulation, you know?"

"Oh yeah! We could do boys vs girls? Me an' you vs these guys," River nodded at them.

Todoroki looked at her. "Wouldn't you make a better villain?"

River paused, mouth open. "Did you just…. Tease me?" About her dad, no less? A slow grin spread across her face. Todoroki almost never told a joke! She laughed. "Okay, Whoever the villain is I'll be one too. "

The three upper classmen looked at eachother, before they just went with it.

"Okay! Since our powers are incompatible, we'd be terrible match up for eachother, " Mirio said. "So, how about Tamaki, Quinton, and Nejire on one, and me and Todoroki on another?"

"Fine with me," River shrugged.

"Okay," Todoroki agreed. "But, why are you calling her Quinton?"

"Quinton is her last name, isn't it?"

River nodded.

Todoroki's eyes grew wide. "Wait. River is your first name?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"We've been calling you your first name this _entire time?_ "

"Yes?" River looked at the other three. "It's not a big deal, I'm fine with it." She knew there were like, culture things with names, but no one really called her Quinton, and as much as she liked to hear it it was still weird.

Todoroki pressed his lips together before he nodded, once.

"Okay. Then you need to call me Shouto."

"Okay. It'll make it easier to stop saying Tokoyami when I'm trying to get your attention too."

"Now that that's settled!" Mirio clapped her shoulder. "Let's begin. Villains get a fifteen minute head start!"

"Go!"

* * *

Five hours found all of the boys collapsed on the ground while Nejire and River, who had the most stamina and a bullshit healing factor, stood over them.

Tamaki had dropped out first. He'd run out of snacks, and in turn his quirk had been rendered useless and Todoroki, who was mostly trying to distract them from Mirio, had 'frozen him' ie; covered him in a thin layer of ice to signify his apparent loss. The frost still clung to the tips of his pointy ears and his dark hair.

Todoroki was next one down. Nejire may not had been as crazy fast as Mirio or as sneaky as River, but she could blast straight through his ice constructs and both of them could dodge the flames enough the River managed to sneak in and smack him in the back of the head while Mirio tried to figure out a way out of the cube River had stuck him in shortly after they started.

In the end, he'd had to give up, and River her let him out only for him to sneak attack her. Nejire intervened, used Mirio's own trick and their friendship against him, and pounded him soundly into the ground.

"Soooo," River drawled. "That was fun. "

"Poor boys," Nejire fluttered around them. She'd hardly broken a sweat in their little villainous stunt, even when River, Tamaki, and Nejire had been sprinting through buildings to find a place to get a drop on the other two.

"Mhmm. Poor unfortunate souls, in pain, in need."

"No singing," Tamaki mumbled, rolling over on his side.

"He's so cute, but like, kinda boring?" River gestured helplessly towards him to Nejire, who giggled at her and went to help her poor friends stand again.

"He's just Tamaki, that's all. Are you guys gonna be coming here often? We should do this again, it was fun!"

"Probably. Can I have your number? Then we can just arrange something!"

Nejire quickly produces a pen and jots it down for her, and River and Todoroki, Shouto, are left to watch the Big Three amble away.

"…you know they were holding back, right?"

"Oh yeah. If they hadn't been, Nejire and Tamaki both would have trounced you."

"But not you?"

River tossed him a smile. Careless and easy. She wrapped her arms around his, letting the coolness sink into her skin.

"Not me. It's a good thing I'm on your side, huh?"

"Yeah," a phantom smile flickered across his face and Shouto started their walk back to the dorms. They could both do with a shower, but River couldn't be happier. It had been a fun day, she'd got to fight alongside a cute girl, and Shouto was humming, probably unconsciously, 'No one is alone'.

 _Someone is on your side._

 _Our side._

 _Our side_

 _Someone else is not._

 _While we're seeing our side – our side- our side – maybe we forgot._

 _They are not alone._

 _No one is alone._

 _Someone is on your side…_

No one is alone. That day, it could have been more true, even if she didn't realize it yet. No one was alone.

Not River and Shouto.

Not Tomura and League of Villains.

Not Shin Nemoto and the Expendables.

Not Ray and the Damned.

And not the other forces, the ones who were about to make the plot even more convoluted than it already was.


	48. No Laughing Matter

In the weeks that followed River fell into some kind of pattern, living in the dorms.

It reminded her in some ways of her time with REACH. Everyone under the same room, a bunch of weirdos with their own bizarre personalities, habits, and literal quirks. River learned more about her classmates than she had ever expected.

She learned that Hagakure had increadibly long hair, that got _everywhere_. River had pulled invisible hair out of places she didn't even want to think of how it go there, and the invisible girl had no way access too. She had a horrible penchant for sneaking up on people without meaning to, and Kirishima had almost punched her in the face three times already.

Jiro practiced music at all hours of the night. Now one might think 'oh but River is a musician too! They must jam all the time!' but not so. River had the confidence of someone who had been playing for decades and who did it for the fun of it. Jiro was too self conscious to play in front of other people, and whenever the subject was broached she got squirly.

Yaomomo was still a bit of a princess. She wasn't rude and she didn't complain about things, but she was still struggling to get used to how 'small' their new living space was. She wasn't used to sharing bathroom counters, or letting other people charge their hair curlers while she was doing her own things. She took up so much of the space in the bathrooms started getting ready in her own room rather than face the overly expensive make up on the counter.

Uraraka and Bakugou were both horribly irritable in the morning, but _Bakugou_ was less likely to try and throw someone through a wall. He was also the best of them when it came to cooking, and had turned the kitchen into a 'no kaminari' zone.

Kaminari was the source of her greatest ire. He gathered static electricity like it was going out of style, and more than once had every light in the building flickered because he wasn't paying attention to how into his video game he was.

It was a combination of Bakugou being in charge of the kitchen and Kaminari flickering the power that lead River to do something… odd.

"This is the weirdest thing I've ever done," Deku said quietly.

"Then your life must be really boring babes," River said simply.

"... I think your life it just really weird. This is the strangest thing I've ever been a part of too."

"Hush."

River flipped over the pancake, letting it steam for a few minutes. Todoroki sat on the ground, holding fire up in one hand while she worked over it, holding the food up on a barrier of her own creation. That wasn't the weirdest thing about what they were doing with their little cook out. The thing that the boys wouldn't stop talking about was the egg frying on his leg.

River was delighted by meme potential. She loved these boys.

 _Leg so hot, hot hot leg, leg so hot you fry an egg!_

"So what do you think Bakugou's doing for breakfast?" Shouto asked, lifting his head so he could check that nothing was burning. As if River would let it.

"Whatever he'd making it is taking way too long. My stomach is going to eat itself at this rate, fuck."

"Can your stomach even do that?" Deku asked, touching his chin. "I mean if you never change, why do you feel hunger? If you get hungry enough will your body start to eat itself? What if you just never eat again?"

"You know I actually can answer that," River moved down the line of pancakes. "I reach the point of hunger my body reverts to the starting point again. I won't starve to death, and I don't lose or gain weight either within a certain amout. As for the why's, I have no clue. That's just how it worked out," she shrugged. "Maybe to make sure I'm still human? How's that egg coming along?"

"It feels gross, but it's cooking," Shouto made a face, but stayed still. God she loved this boy.

"Your quirk is so strange," Deku muttered.

"How do you know that?" Shouto asked, changing gear.

"Eh, when I figured out nothing was gonna kill me I played around with it," she shrugged casually. "Do you like chocolate chips?"

"Sure," Shouto nodded to it.

Tarmac, who'd been playing with the butterflies that floated around in the warm air, stopped to look over at them suddenly. Ears pricked, eyes wide. The tip of his tail was twitching. River followed his gaze a realized that Deku's tie was hanging out of his back pocket. She opened her mouth to warn him, too late.

Tarmac shot across the lawn and latched onto Deku's butt, sending the boy shouting and jumping into the air. River watched Tarmac tear his tie out and roll around the ground, ripping it apart. Deku limped away, eying the little black ball of fluff like he was some kind of devil.

"We need to eat soon, or else we'll end up being late."

The day had finally arrived, the day of their big exam. The provisional liscencing exam, and River wasn't too sure how ready everyone was for it. As soon as she mentioned it Deku went from distrusting her cat to looking nervous and some of the tension in Shouto's shoulders increased.

Everyone who wasn't River was on the verge of an anxiety attack. She was a little jealous.

"Stop looking gloomy and eat," she shoved the pancake forwards. "They'd done, Shouto, you can let it go."

"Can I take the egg off of my leg now?"

River cocked her head. "I guess…"

River watched him get rid of the egg with only a little bit of disappointment before she ate her pancakes. Rolled up like a burrito, totally dry.

If the boys thoughts there was anything crazy about that they didn't say anything.

When they finally trooped their way back into the dorms River had to act fast to catch the three boxes that were launched at their heads. She looked up, ignoring Deku's little squeak, to see Bakugou glowering at them.

"Hurry up already! We had to wait for you," he barked.

River looked down at the boxes she was holding. "Did you… make us lunch?"

"He made everyone lunch!" Mina held up her box too with a bubbly smile.

"That's really nice?" River handed Shouto and Deku their boxes, honestly surprised. Bakugou didn't seem like the nicest person. He definitely wasn't the nicest person. So why was he making everyone lunch? Well, River wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Thanks."

Bakugou was the first one to march out the door, followed by a giggling Mina and Uraraka. River and the rest trooped after them, out onto the bus where Aizawa was already waiting for them. All of their hero uniform cases were in the storage unit, plus the bag that River had brought back from Taro's house.

River pulled out the purple box from Abuela, something she'd kept on her person since her return from the villains.

"What even is that?" Tokoyami asked as he sat beside her. Shouto was on her other side. River unclasped the latch and shook out what lay inside. A thin blade, the shape of a leaf. Round, wider on the bottom and thinning to a point at the top. The steel had been folded, over and over and over again until the ripples formed curving veins of the leaf. It was a blade, but it had no hilt, and when she cut her finger on it it had healed like a regular cut would. Without her healing factor.

"Damascus steel, I think," she helt it carefully by the flat end. "It was given to me on my… trip, to America. My Abuela gave it to me."

"Abuela?" Tokoyami repeated, the foreign word tipping strangely through his beak.

"It's Spanish," she said, "It means grandmother. I haven't figured out how to work it yet. There has to be some way. But I can't hold it without risking cutting myself."

"There's no instruction manual she gave you?" Shouto asked.

River shrugged. "Nope. Nothing." She'd puzzled over it, but she couldn't find any answers. That whole trip had been so weird. She'd gotten answers she didn't know she needed, and now she had questions that still needed answers.

She couldn't risk using things she didn't understand entirely in a test. But it still felt good to have it on her person.

River played with the knife, mindful of the blade, the whole drive to the resting facility. When they all trooped out and grabbed their cases, hers was the only one without a number and hard outside.

"I knew you had some adjustments made, but did you go to a totally separate agency for your new suit?" Kaminari asked when he saw her swing up the duffel bag.

"Huh? No, it's a surprise," she said brightly. They were almost to the door when a group of more students appeared around the corner and someone called for Aizawa. River turned with the rest of them, and found a familiar face in a crowd of students.

"Eraser!"

Aizawa stopped dead in his tracks. He looked over at the approaching crowd. They were lead by a lady with pale blue hair and a bright smile, but it wasn't her that River was focused on. Her gaze passed over the womans shoulder, to that familiar face in the background.

River bolted across the ground, passing Ms. Joke with a blur of wind before she threw her arms violently around broad shoulders. To his credit, Shindo didn't drop her. He caught her around the middle, holding her up with ease.

"Yo!" she sang. Quieter, ducking her head, she murmured, "I got something to tell you after the test. About your heart."

He stiffened, but didn't let on that he'd heard her besides that.

"Hey, River. Did you miss me?" He asked instead, setting her down. River brushed her sleeve off and grinned brightly at him.

"Like the moon misses the sun. It's been a minute. C'mon," she grabbed his hand and dragged him away from his bewildered classmates to her own, who were watching her antics wearily.

"Guys! This is one of the guys I met at my Internship," she said brightly and shoved him towards her classmates. He went with it easily, slipping on that same mask River was so jealous of.

"Hey, I'm Shindo! Looks like UA is having a lot of trouble this year, it must've been tough for you." He walked up to Deku and grabbed his hands, his dead eyes sitting above him warm smile. Deku looked rather afraid. "Despite those hardships you're all still trying so very hard to be heroes! It's wonderful, to see your hearts full of fortitude! That's what I think every hero in the world needs to have." He'd shifted to holding the hands of a few of her classmates. River would give it to him. He was very personable.

"And River," he turned to her at last. "It must have been hard for you with that whole kidnapping incident."

There was a sharpness in his eyes. He was trying to needle her, she understand, while the rest of her classmates looked offended on her behalf.

River swatted at his arm. "It was fine, I'm fine. I finished my existencial crisis up the week before and spent the whole day telling the leader he needed to moisturize more."

Shindo paused, staring at her.

"You know. I buy that. That just means you must have the strongest heart of all. I hope you don't mind if I try to learn from you today," he said, voice dripping with sweetness. River smiled like glitter was stuck in her teeth and cocked her head sideways.

"Only if you don't mind me studying how you can talk around all of that bull-"

"Everyone!" Aizawa cut in, breaking through the sparkles that had somehow started to float around them. When had River been able to do that? The world may never know. "It's time. Go get changed and meet in the exam room. The rules will be explained there."

River saluted him snappily. This was finally something she didn't have to work her way in circles over. Beat the pulp out of people, don't kill anyone, easy peasy. The hardest part would be trying to comfort the injured, but she'd been working on that. River left Shindo behind and jogged with the rest of her girls to the locker room, so they could get ready. They all had their high tech, unique suits, and she had all she needed.

River had used the body suit, her original costume, as a way of distancing herself from her past, and trying to push herself away from what she was. Now, things were different. Now, she was, and always would be, the Red River. She wasn't running from it, she wasn't hiding from it. She would never leave behind Taro, or Anne, or Gabe or Jess or any of them. And she wasn't trying to anymore either.

What she pulled on didn't exactly match the typical hero look.

She took all of the red of her hair and had braided it tightly towards the back of her head, where it was kept secure by a tight red band.

Her pants were black printed with leopard spots in gold. Her shirt was a deceptively purple Kevlar, shining faintly with the reinforced fabric. It worked like a cutglove, backed in silk. Around her ribs she tied a deep blue sash and strapped on her knife from Abuela, mostly ornamental now.

Over all of it she draped Taro's coat across her shoulders.

Black, rimmed in red fur, it fell almost all the way to her knees. It still smelled faintly of him.

When she looked in the mirror, she could recognize the girl staring back at her.

* * *

The sun was warm on her back, heating the skin that wasn't covered by the sensor she'd placed there, in a very obvious spot to hit. The others were on her chest and stomach, a bit more challenging. River breathed in the fresh air that fell from the opened ceiling, stretching her hands up above her as she walked through the newly formed canyons that Shindo had made. There was a crack on the back of her right hand, fractured and bleeding, from where she'd discovered that her walls couldn't block his quirk.

This whole 'liking other people' thing was starting to hurt.

Oh well.

River flicked blood off her fingers and moved quietly through the shadows Shindo had cast, looking for her classmates. Bakugou and his team had run off one direction, Todoroki was still playing lone ranger somewhere else, and she had stuck around because she wanted to fuck with Camie. Toga. Whatever. And because she liked Shindo and didn't get to see him much.

There was a ball in one of her hands when she turned the corner, giving her the upperhand when she realized telescope girl, who's quirk was horrific in real life. It was River tried no to gag. River stepped around the corner, and caught a ball aiming at her back with a barrier lifted just in time.

She looked over her shoulder and found one of Shindo's classmates, looking shocked. River tossed her ball at them, and when they dodged she used a barrier to trap them in place, four around their right leg, while she made another wall behind them to bounce the ball off of until it struck the target on their arm. Another and it hit the targets on their stomach, one right next to eachother.

River took her ball back and left the student in encased in her walls before she moved on. As soon as she was out of eye sight she let them go. She didn't want them raising the alarm that she was there. There were, strangely, very few people around her. They were probably all after her friends with more flashy quirks. River didn't have such a thing. It was most flashy when she started bleeding horrifically from someone breaking through it.

She tossed her ball up and down, creeping around while she mused. She went ahead and knocked out the next person she saw. Someone in a Shiketsu uniform, that she didn't recognize. They never saw her coming, and she passed before Aoyama's laser blast. She was almost disappointed. She liked the UA comeback, but she didn't have the patience to fuck around and pretend she couln't pass already.

River made her way to the waiting room, where Shouto was already sitting. River went and sat next to him. They weren't the first, and Inasa Yaorashi (or whatever his last name was. Yoshi? Yorashi?) was sitting on corner, eying Shouto unpleasantly.

"Did you piss in his apple juice or something?" she asked lightly, looking him over. He hadn't ended up introducing himself to them earlier, for some reason. And now he looked extra upset.

"I have no idea," Shouto hunched his shoulders. River took the oppostunity to lean against him, using his cool side to chill out. River narrowed her eyes minutely. She had liked Inasa, liked his enthusiasm, but Shouto was her friend.

"Whatever it is, don't let him get to you. You're here to be a hero, right?"

She waited until he nodded.

"Good. Don't let anyone distract you from that. If he's got his panties in a twist, that's not your problem."

"I don't think you used this kind of language when we first met."

"Probably not," she shrugged. "How long do you think it'll be before everyone else show up?"

"Soon enough. I thought Midoriya had you all working together?"

"Shindo, my friend from the internships, has a pretty strong quirk. He broke up the ground and separated us, so we couldn't stay a team anymore," she smiled fondly.

"You must have gotten pretty close to him…"

"I would die for that boy," she said firmly. "And you, too, don't pout," she poked his cheek, smiling.

"I don't know what it means that you would 'die' for us when you're conditionally immortal," Shouto said with a slow smile. River laughed at him.

"Don't tease, that's rude!" she laughed.

She watched the rest of her classmates troop in. Kaminari looked a little worse for wear, but the other two were in high spirits. And of course, Deku's group came in last, looking bedraggled.

"Poor guys," she crooned at them.

"You suck at this sympathy thing, you know that right?"

"I have plenty of sympathy for plenty of people," she huffed.

"Don't look now, but your friend doesn't look too happy with you, either."

"Huh?" she lifted her head and looked around. She found Shindo staring at her from the corner, his mask of cheer vanished. "Oh. Nah, we're fine. He's just got resting bitch heart."

"…don't you mean resting bitch face?"

"No, no I do not."

The overhead clicked on and their oh-so-cheerful announcer came on, as well as a TV in a corner showed off the area they'd just been in explode into pieces. River's shoulders drew together.

" _For our Next and last test, we'll be having you act as if you already have you liscences, and you will be rescuing 'bystanders' in a disaster zone. This will be a test for your attitudes and abilities in a rescue opportation. So, for this test 'Villains' have performed a large scale terrorist attack spanning all of insert city name here. Since most buildings collapsed, there are many in danger. Due to heavily damaged roads, the first responders have unfortunately been delayed for the time being. Until Emergency services arrive, the heroes in the area will lead the rescue efforts. Your task is to save as many people as you can and help the injured. All of these civillians will be played by professional actors from Help Us Company, or HUC. You have ten minutes before the test begins while they get into position. If you need to use the facilities now, do so."_

River stood up, brushing herself off. This was it. Combat she knew. Fighting, that was easy. This part, the part where she had to comfort people, had to actually rescue them and keep them calm, that was where she would be a veritable fish out of water. This wouldn't be like when something went wrong and she could be matter of fact with Jazz's children, or Gabe's soldiers. This was going to be civillians, who would not deal well with being told blunt truths of their conditions.

Shouto touched her shoulder.

"You'll be fine. Don't let anything distract you from your goal," he spoke her words back to her and River felt a knot in her chest loosen. She nodded, once.

While they were all getting ready to start trooping out into the Arena River grabbed Shindo before he could get away, and Camie too. She had said she wanted to fuck with Toga. She dragged them over to the others, who had paused outside when they realized she wasn't there. Even Bakugou and his squad were hanging in the back, watching her come rushing over with two aparant strangers.

"Why do you look like you're about to start giving orders?" Kaminari asked wearily.

"Not orders! I'm not in charge of anything here. Just, _suggestions_. He said this was a villain attack, and that means that there's probably going to be a fighting portion in there somewhere too, right? I was thinking that it might be good for us to work together. We can set up a first aid center for the injured, and people with quirks more suited towards rescue can bring them there, while combat oriented quirks keep an out for danger and protect them and civillians."

"That's not a bad idea," Shindo nodded towards her. "I'd be willing to help out. We're done fighting eachother for this portion."

"That's such bullshit," Bakugou scowled at her. "I don't need to be wasting my time helping out you dorks."

River crossed her arms over her chest. "Bakugou. This is a test. You know good and well sometimes pro's have to work with people they don't like. Don't you think part of the test will be whether you can keep your cool and cooperate? You can't just beat the crap out of people all the time."

"I told you not to start telling me what to do!"

River held up her hands in surrender. "Fine, fine. Do whatever you want dude."

Kaminari draped his arm across her shoulder. "Don't worry, me and Kirishima will keep an eye on him."

"I'm just worried that he won't watch his mouth while you're working with the injured. You know how he is…"

"Don't worry," Kaminari repeated. He let her go, time was about up.

Shindo went to go get a couple of his other classmates, while Shouto went overto the Shiketsu squad.

River stayed back, and when he pulled away from Inasa, looking like he'd been slapped, she had to force herself not to go over and slap him. Instead she waited for Shouto to come over to her, looking shaken. She touched his arm, worry creasing her brows.

"Shouto…"

"I'm fine," he said, taking a breath. "I won't let him distract me from my goal. Are you ready?"

Pride bubbled inside her chest. She nodded, once.

"Ready."

The building they were in fell open, revealing the disaster area that'd been set up. River braced herself.

" _Begin_!"

They hit the ground running. The groups peeled off, Shouto, Tokoyami, Rikido, Ojirou, Aoyama, Hagakure, and Yaomomo making a space with Shindo's classmates for triage while River, Mina,Uraraka, Tsu, Jiro, Sero, Shoji, Mineta and Shindo went off to rescue people. Even though he wasn't the very best at rescuing people, Shindo had more experience than any of them in this particular scenario, and that would prove useful.

River stuck to his side.

"I think I need your lessons in lying," she joked.

"What makes you say that?" he asked, peering over at her.

"I'm not very good at it. And when we try to help these people, I have to lie and say everything will be okay. And more than that, I have to be sincere. "

"You'll do fine," Shindo dismissed.

River nodded, once. A scream came from somewhere to the right, and she left off from the others, along with Deku crossing rubble. There was a woman trapped under a slab of stone, blood pooling under her. She was crying, big fat crocodile tears.

"Help!" she wailed. "I'm trapped."

"Oh!" Deku stalled. "That looks-"

"Like it is not ideal," River interrupted, shooting him a sharp look. "It'll all be fine though, right Deku?"

"Uh, right! We're here now," he played along admirable. He dropped to his knees beside her. He was better as fighting, but he and Tenya would be useful for getting people to the triage center.

River circled the woman, keeping her feet light. She was under on very large slab of concrete, there was nothing indicating any rebar in it.

"Miss, what's your name?" she asked, coming around to kneel beside Deku.

"Akane," she sniffed convincingly.

"Okay Akane. Can you feel your legs right now?" she asked calmly.

"Yes. They hurt…"

"That's a good thing, trust me," Rive offered her a crooked smile. "Deku, I need you to brace the concrete. Can you hold it up and steady?"

Light sparked across his skin and he nodded, going to grab the edge.

"Go slow. If you see it starting to shift something else, stop. I'm going to reinforce it. Once I can see her legs, I'll put up a barrier to keep her it in place and pull her out. Okay?"

Deku nodded sharply, once.

"Akane, I need to stay very still for me now, can you do that?"

Akane nodded. River pulled a small flashlight out of one of the pockets in Taro's coat and laid herself flat in front of Akane, so she could shine the light inside. Deku lifted, inch by inch.

"Now Akane, can you breath with me? In, out, in, out," she guided her through it slowly. As soon as she could see where the tops of Akane's legs and feet were she clicked her tongue, once. Deku let go of the slab and the whole thing stayed still. River felt across Akane's arms, checking for breaks, and when she found none she nodded to Deku, who hauled Akane out carefully.

River checked her legs, and her back.

"Nothing is broke or out of place. It looks like a few bruises and some lacerations, but she's safe to travel. Deku, can you get her back?"

He nodded quickly. "Yeah!"

"Okay. Akane, Deku is going to carry you to some of our friends. He's going to go very fast, is that okay with you?"

Akane nodded, sniffling. "Yes…"

"Good. Deku," she leaned in and whispered so Akane couldn't hear. "Brace her neck, don't let her get whiplash."

Deku nodded, picking up Akane with the very most care. He took off, and River let out a breath of relief.

She leaned against the nearest wall, trying to ease the tension in her chest. She was nervous. Fuck, she was nervous. The last time she'd been in such a disaster area….

There had been no surprivors, after REACH had fallen. No one but her, and she had wandered the wreckage, begging for someone, anyone else to be alive. No one heard her prayers, her please.

It was okay though. This wasn't that. This wasn't real, first off, and for another thing there were survivors here. It would all be fine.

River shook herself off and ran into the frey once more. She was careful to stay off the ground as much as she could, instead running on platforms so she didn't mess up the rubble. She doubted any of it was unstable enough for anyone to actually be hurt, but it would be just her luck for that to happen to her.

River found another person, a little boy who laying prone on the ground. She checked his pulse, first, then looked him over for injuried. He was bleeding a bit from the head. River shook him gently, but he stayed still.

"Okay," she pulled out the flashlight again. Carefully she peeled open his eyes, checking his pupils. They dilated as they were supposed to. River picked the little boy up into her arms and started running for the triage center. She was about halfway through when the announcer's voice came back on.

 _"_ _A villain has completed another large scale attack,_ " he said just as the ground started to rumble with explosions. Debris erupted all over the place. River ran up onto the platform, lifting herself into the air. From her new vantage point, she realized she could see all of her friends, running around. Why hadn't she thoughts of this before? _"Terrorists have appeared and are beginning to sweep the area, hero candidates at the scene should continue their rescue efforts while also suppressing the newly arrived villains."_

She could also see a group of villains swarming across the ridge like an army of ants, black clothes and concrete guns. They were lead by a man who looked like a killer whale, with a long white coat sweeping across his shoulders. There were a few bleeding people laying in their path.

River looked down on her friends.

"Hey!" she shouted, "The villains are north by north east, closing in fast! There's still civillians in that area!"

Warning delivered River ran down a staircase in the sky, to the triage center. She handed off the little boy to one of Shindo's classmates, a girl with a healing quirk.

"I'm going to see if I can divert the villains coming this way," she told them.

Shouto stood up from where he was icing someone's knee.

"I'll come too. I'm good for taking on large crowds."

River nodded her agreement and they raced out into the fray. As soon as they were within distance Rive snapped her fingers and all of the villains who had been running at them slammed into her walls. Most of them were forced to stumble down and back. River dropped the walls.

"Shouto, now!"

He waved his hand and ice erupted forth, freezing them all in place.

"Yes!" she cheered. "I'm gonna keep this up so they can't get by. Shindo's up ahead, and I can't use my quirk around him. Or you, really."

"I'll help him out," Shouto nodded at her and ran forth, ahead of her.

River stayed where she was, focused on her wall and anything trying to creep up on her.

It wasn't very exciting, but she made sure no one got past her while the boys had their little spat. She couldn't see all that was going on, but she hoped that Shouto wasn't going to be fucking around with Insa this time.

Finally, the announcement came back on.

They were done. The test was over.


	49. Dead Face

River dusted off her skirt as she stepped out into the throng of waiting students. Out of the 100 of them that there were, several were looking like they already knew their results.

Even though River knew, consciously, she'd behaved like a professional, there was still a part of her that didn't wonder if she might be failed for being too rough, for being- well, for being her. Never the less, when she looked up at the board, she found her name there.

And, even more of a surprise, she found Shouto's.

But not Inasa's.

Which raised a lot of questions. River took her form from the man who was handing them out and looked over her score.

 _Remained calm, came up with a plan, used quirk effectively and prioritized safety of civillians… Hesitated midway through._

When had she hesitated? She hadn't- Oh. She _had_ had to gather herself. That could have been bad, if someone was hurt worse because she stopped moving and acting.

"Holy shit!" Mina cried from over her shoulder. "That's insane!"

River snatched her paper against her chest, hiding it against her boobs.

"Don't do that!" she shouted, elbowing her friend lightly.

"You got-" River clapped a hand over her mouth, keeping her from finishing the sentence.

"Shh!" she hissed, shooting a sharp look over at Katsuki, who was trying to rip Kirishima's paper out of his hands. He was the only one of them that hadn't passed.

Mina licked her hand, and River snatched it away, wiping it on her skirt.

"Bitch that's gross!"

"You had to know I was gonna do that."

"Whatever. Just start thinking of a way to cheer up Bakugou so he doesn't kill us all in our sleep."

"You know statistically-"

"Nope!" Mina put her finger to River's lips. "Don't wanna hear it. Just get ready to cheer him up. "

River narrowed her eyes at her, but didn't fight it. Mina finally let her go.

"Fine, I'll think of something," she waved her hands in front of herself to placate her friend. "But first I'm gonna go chat up that Shiketsu girl, and Shindo too. Be back soon."

Mina didn't try to stop her from trotting off, after the tall Camie. She needed to catch her now, before it was too late. She hadn't said it when she should have, when the chance was right there and easy. But now she had to make due.

"Hey!" River jogged up behind her, catching her arm. She slipped a small piece of paper into her sleeve, watching Camie's eyes widen minutely. She squeezed her arm, smiling up at her. It was hard to see, most people would have no clue, but she could see the light in her eyes. Recognition and a tiny spark of darkness in the back. One that River was familiar with.

"That was some trick you pulled on Midoriya. Very cool. We should hang out sometime," she said swiftly. Before they could attract too much attention. She didn't' want either of them getting into trouble just yet. She needed this message to get to the LoV, and right now she couldn't go to them herself. This would have to be enough.

"Oh, you think so?" Camie's smile was stretched. Her eyes darted around them, but they were alone.

"Yeah. Gimme a call, okay?" she didn't give Camie, or Toga, as it was, a chance to really respond before she spun on her heels and jogged off with a wave. She left her there, making short work. The note should be enough to at least get her attention. And the tracker from Yaomomo that she had slipped in her pocket would be helpful as well. She had other places she needed to go now.

Once her business with Camie was over she went after Shindo, who was waiting for her near the doorway, as she had expected. She took his arm and tugged him along. The facility was full of rooms for changing, getting ready, and most of them were already emptied out from the groups that had failed earlier. It was one of these that River tugged him into. Shindo shut the door behind them.

"So," he said, his false smile fading into a true neutral expression. "You said you knew something about my heart?"

"Yes," River sat on a table and crossed her legs, looking up at him. Shindo planted his hands on the table, leaning over her. She had missed him. He was easy to be around. And he was kinda hot, too.

"So I went on… well vacation aint the right word, but whatever. Either way I went back to the US. And this is gonna sound really weird, but I swear its true."

She stumbled over where where she wanted to start. How much she really wated him to know.

"I was having an existencial crisis," she said finally. "So I went back to where I came from. And I met some very interesting people. They understood where my quirk came from, and how it worked. And more than that… they know what you are, too."

" 'what' I am," he repeated, watching her. His eyes were dark. So dark, she knew their depths. He could be a dangerous person, but instead he was fighting for something else. He was fighting so no one needed to know the pain his heart.

River didn't think she had ever admired someone more.

"What you are," she repeated. "There's not just humans in the world. Quirks aren't the only way people do pretanatural things. "

"So what, you're saying I'm a vampire? Or a Demon?" he didn't bother trying to look amused for her. She didn't blame him. She'd just call him out on his lying again, probably.

"Not quit. One of the people I spoke to," Death himself, in fact, "I mentioned what you told me. About not feeling anything besides anger and sadness and such. That's not sociopathic. It's not that you don't empathize with others, or that you can't understand other people or society. You want to protect people. You want to make sure that they don't hurt, even if you get injured in the process."

"I can't tell if you're praising me or not," Shindo told her blandly. River flicked his forehead.

"I'm saying I admire you. Let me finish my dramatic speech already."

He cracked a smile at her, but it did not touch his onyx eyes. River still returned it.

"He told me that you're something called a 'Dead Face'."

Shindo sat a little straighter. His mouth thinned into a line, but he didn't interrupt.

"The way he described it, a Dead Face is the remnants of a bunch of people who died. They're last feelings that they expriienced, all wrapped up into one space. Sometimes they can take a human form, or posses a body that's passed on… Shindo, where are you from?"

Shindo didn't respond right away. He was watching her, those fathomless eyes intense. She didn't know if he hated her for saying all of this or not.

"Shikkotsu. It was a train station that got hit with an earthquake. I wandered out of the station and a pro found me a block away. I don't remember a life before that, and I didn't have any identification. They took me to the hospital and tried to find family, but it was like I didn't exist before that day. I had to pick my own name."

"You name… 'truth' and 'shake'?"

"The earth quake, and the truth I couldn't remember. And now you found it."

There was something new in his eyes. River's breath caught when he leaned forwards and hugged her, strong arms threatening to crush her.

"Yo?" she hugged him back, resting her chin on his shoulder.

"Thank you. For telling me this, and giving me some answers."

River softened. She hugged him tighter. "Of course. You're my friend, you know?"

"You know I can't feel real affection for you…"

"I'm gonna call bullshit on that," River nudged him backwards so she could see his face. He looked more relaxed somehow. "When you plit up the ground, I should have been able to keep my classmates in little safety boxes, but you're quirk broke my barriers. That only happens if the person trying to break them cares about me, and I care about them. So you can care about people," she tapped his chest, above his heart. "And you do. Or else you wouldn't be trying to protect people. "

Yo hovered close to her. It was like a weight had lifted, and River was so glad she had been the one to help.

"Are you going to spend your work study as Wizardry?" Shindo asked, finally giving her some space. River shook her head.

"I don't think that they'll let me. They're going to be more stern with who they let us do work studies this year, after everything that's happened."

"If you do," he offered her his hand. She took it gladly and stood.

"It'll be nice to see you again. Maybe with a few less serial killers this time," she joked.

Shindo didn't laugh, but a small glimmer found its way into his dead eyes. That was more than enough.


End file.
